Remember Me
by fearthepaintedangel
Summary: When loving someone can mean your demise, would you still have the courage to love them? Katherine has heard her prophecy and knows what it may mean to fall in love with Sirius Black, but does she want to stop herself? SiriusXOC Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Katherine swung the grocery bag back and forth as she walked hand in hand with her mother. She looked up at her mother's beautiful smiling face. Always encouraging, always open. They had gone to the grocery store for some gram crackers, marshmallows and chocolate. Her mom had promised her s'mores tonight. It was Katherine's favourite snack as a child.

They reached the house and went in through the back door in the kitchen. "Put the bag on the counter, Katherine and we can get started." Her mother smiled as she got out a pan to melt the s'mores on and placed it on the stove.

"Here you go, mommy! I put the crackers in pairs for the s'mores!" Katherine exclaimed excitedly. She proceeded in trying to sneak a marshmallow to eat but her mother was quick as always and told her to wait for the s'mores to be finished.

There was the sound of a pop and Katherine's mother turned to the sound of her father apparating inside the living room. "Daddy's home!" Katherine ran to meet her father's embrace as he entered the kitchen. He scooped her up in his arms and gave his wife a kiss on the cheek.

Katherine noticed a sound at the door but she was distracted by her mother's urgent sounding words.

"Katherine, remember the flower we planted yesterday in the backyard? Can you go and water it a bit?" her mother asked her. Katherine, overjoyed to be given the responsibility to water her mother's flowers for the first time in her five years, scampered quickly out the back door, not noticing her parents' tense looks.

She hurried out to the garden and grabbed her little watering bucket. The pink one with the sunflowers on it. She ran to the far corner of the garden and spotted her mother's prized flower. The one that only bloomed at twilight, just this time, to show it's deep violet petals, which were her mother's favourite colour. The colour of Katherine's eyes.

Katherine lifted her watering bucket carefully and watered the flower at its base just like her mother had shown her. Satisfied she had watered it enough she put her watering bucket back in the shed and went back towards the back door of the house.

As she neared the door, she heard the voices of her parents as well as one other. An unfamiliar voice. One she never wanted to hear again. She peered in to the house through the window on the door, having been covered slightly by a small white curtain. Inside, she saw her parents both facing a man in long black robes. His face something too horrible to behold, with red eyes like a snake and slits for nostrils.

"You have betrayed me, Coxwell. I accepted you as my faithful death eater when you were young, and interested in the dark arts, but you have betrayed me claiming love for this mudblood." He spit the word mudblood out like a curse. "You have been lucky to hide away from me for so long, but not anymore. I cannot let someone unfaithful and associated with this dirty blood to continue on in this world." he raised his wand, ready to strike, lazily, like he had done it many times before. Katherine was sure he had.

"Please, not my wife. Take me, but not my wife." Her father moved in front her mother, his body acting like a shield. Katherine saw tears track down her mother's face and wanted to run inside to stop any person who caused her pain, but when she tried to put a hand to the doorknob and open it, she could not. She did not know at the time, but her mother had charmed her from coming inside, the moment the stranger had arrived.

Her father's pleas were lost to this man who raised his wand again and this time, green light flashed before Katherine's eyes as she watched her parents fall to the ground. She could not understand what was happening, she was hoping her parents would pop up and surprise her, saying it was just a joke, but she knew it would not happen.

As the stranger left without having noticed her, she cried because the smoke from the burning s'mores had travelled under the door and reached her eyes, making them water. She blacked out to the smell of burning s'mores and to the image of her mother's tears.

She woke up in her grandmother's house that smelt of her favourite chocolate chip cookies and roasted almonds. But even these things were not comfort to her confused mind. Her grandmother, seeing her awake, sat on the edge of the bed and helped her up to sit. She gave her a long hug and then searched her face for her innocent granddaughter, but all she found was a broken girl who said, "I want to forget, Grandmama. I don't want to remember." And so, forget she did. Not only the moment of her parents death, but also every moment before that, every memory, that made it so hard to let go of them. She could not take it, so she forgot, because that's what she could now do. She could remove the memories that were too painful to hold on to.

Since the death of her parents that she could not remember, Katherine had lived with her Grandmama. When she turned 11 years old she did not go to Hogwarts for school like all the other wizarding kids. She stayed at home where her Grandmama taught her all she needed to know through home-schooling. Her grandmother told her it was for her own safety. She spent her days in the house or in the yard, studying magic, writing in her diary or reading the countless stacks of books in her room. And when her grandmother went into her trances, Katherine locked herself in her room until her grandmother was done.

Her sweet Grandmama was a Sybil who could not control when prophecies or random bits of the future hit her. Katherine found the whispers of people's destinies daunting, but never as daunting as her own.

_12 years later._

On her seventeenth birthday, July 17, her grandmother had let slip the prophecy of her granddaughter. She had known her granddaughter's fate for a long time but never had the heart to reveal to her the prophecy that could shape her actions. Katherine still remembered when her grandmother's voice turned cold and raspy as she spoke these lines:

"_Under the white cherry blossom tree, she will meet the man she can't forget _

_Who will be the cause of her demise and the reason for her existence._

_Their love is the one that will move the sun and the other stars even in death's parting. -_ "

Katherine knew the moment her grandmother had started speaking that it was the prophecy of her own future. She could not handle it, so she shook her grandmother's shoulders until she stopped. She had heard the fates of people she would never know and she could accept whatever their fates were, but when she heard her own prophecy, she could no longer accept that fate decided things.

After hearing the prophecy, Katherine decided that she would not live in fear of a future that may or may not happen.

Her grandmother continuously insisted that Katherine be careful and stay inside more often and above all avoid a white cherry blossom tree but Katherine wouldn't have it.

She would not stay cooped up in her grandmother's house anymore. She would not just wait around, scared of meeting a similar fate as her parents. She would face her fate, whatever it may be for if she was going to die, then she wanted her life to have some meaning to it.

She decided she was to start going out into the world, starting by finishing her schooling for her seventh year, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The prophecy spoke of her demise because of a man that she would meet. She did not believe in wasting her life in fear of a prophecy, so she was not afraid, 45 days after her birthday on her first day at Hogwarts, sitting under a white cherry blossom tree behind the quidditch pitch carefully writing her thoughts in her diary.


	2. Chapter 2

One. Two. Three. James would snore exactly three times every five minutes as he slept. Sleep. Something that escaped Sirius as he tried his hardest to lose himself in his pillow. Normally, he slept fine. A good eight hours every night, sometimes a little less and sometimes a little more. Though, maybe it was because he had gotten so used to sleeping in his empty house in the summer that sleeping in the dorm with everyone was going to have to take some time to get used to again.

He sat up in his bed and threw on the baby blue shirt he had left on the floor next to his bed. He rubbed his face with his hands but it wasn't really necessary since he was already wide awake.

He wasn't sure what was keeping him awake, what worries it was that plagued his sleep. He quietly slid off his bed and slipped on his shoes. He then stealthily as possible, using only his index finger and thumb, pulled the Marauder's Map from under James' pillow, where James had hid it after probably watching Lily Evans' footsteps before he went to sleep.

"Thanks mate." Sirius whispered to his sleeping friend. James stirred mumbling Lily's name but he did not wake.

James and Lily were Head Boy and Girl that year and it seemed that James' head had finally decreased in size enough for Lily to consider him. In the previous years Lily had always brushed James off completely or got angry with his attitude but Sirius remembered that very morning on the train when he saw how easily she was able to talk to James now, even laughing at his lame jokes about hippogriffs and unicorns.

Sirius pulled his wand out as he walked through the portrait door, the fat lady snoring just as loud as James. He whispered "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." and tapped the map with the tip of his wand. The map of the school appeared almost as if it were alive compared to quiet and still version he walked in. It was well past midnight now, maybe 2 or 3 in the morning and everyone was asleep so Sirius had no trouble sneaking out of the castle to his favourite spot on the grounds.

He walked past the quidditch pitch where tryouts for the quidditch team would begin the next week. James was captain and seeker again this year and of course his best mate Sirius was one of the beaters.

Sirius slowed his pace as he walked behind the pitch towards the large cluster of trees that separated the grounds from the road and the village of Hogsmeade. These trees, unlike the ones in the Forbidden Forest, were much smaller and safer. No evil creatures or dark magic surrounded them, only the occasional Jobberknoll flitting around making no noise.

As he neared the centre of the mass of trees he finally found what he was looking for. The one place he was sure no one in the school knew about except for him. It was the place where he went to think when he didn't want to be bothered. This place was the very forest he was in, but specifically it was the lone white cherry blossom tree that grew in the middle of the forest. Cherry blossoms did not grow natively in Europe, this one was sustained in this climate by some sort of magic as it had been here when he first discovered it in his third year. The tree stood out like white snow in the forest of green and he walked toward it.

He plopped down under it and leaned against its trunk. He closed his eyes feeling the cool, end of summer breeze. Suddenly the knot that had been building up in his chest softened and he felt much better. He laid there a while, maybe five minutes, maybe an hour. He didn't really care or mind.

Finally, he got up and brushing off the grass on his clothes but when he turned to leave he caught a glimpse of something glinting in the moonlight. He turned toward the tree and started to walk around it's 3 foot wide trunk, slowly making no noise.

He reached the other side of the tree expecting much worse than what he found. A girl. One with long black curls sitting under the tree writing in what seemed to be her diary.

He had never seen her before.

_Is fate something we control, or is it something that controls us? _

_People say that dying is the end, that it is the complete stop to everything about a person. I disagree though. I believe that the memories we have of a person are what keep them alive, whether they are physically alive or just alive in our memory. I think the thing to fear most when dying, is not death, but being forgotten. That those we loved and who loved us could forget us forever seems like the thing that scares me most. Not dying. _

_Nevertheless, dying alone without ever being loved, is also something that I fear. My parents left this world together, although much earlier than they or I could've hoped. My prophecy says that because of someone I meet under this beautiful blossom tree, I will come to my 'demise' but it also says that our love will be great enough to move the sun and the other stars. _

_So, I am starting to wonder, is an epic love worth dying for? _

_Somehow I think that if I was given the choice either to live a hundred years alone or live only a hundred days with the one I love, I would choose the hundred days. Because having someone to love and to love me back even for a short while seems much more meaningful than living alone for a long time. We will all die one day, so why does it matter if it's now, if it means I can be with whom I love._

_This is my reasoning, diary. If anyone wonders one day, why I chose to try my fate, to "play god" if you will, by sitting under this tree, this is what I would tell them: That being in love is a much better reason to live, than living for the sake of not dying._

Katherine was about to continue writing in her diary but the light of the full moon was blocked out by a strange figure...

The girl finally looked up from her intent writing to see Sirius and she was so startled that she did the only sane thing one would do in that situation. She screamed dropping her diary to the ground and kicked him in the shin, so he fell over groaning in pain as he clutched his bruised leg. She could definitely kick hard.

She jumped up ready for an attack that never came and she looked down at Sirius' form on the ground realizing that he was not a vicious night creature or some creepy kidnapper but just a boy. A normal teenaged boy. She felt like lightning had just struck her.

"What in the world did you kick me for?" Sirius shouted as he got up limping on his leg.

The girl looked up at him and he got a glare from the most beautiful deep violet eyes. He had never seen eyes like those before.

"Why'd you sneak up on me like that?" she asked in response.

"I wasn't sneaking up on you. I was just trying to see who it was behind the tree. No else at Hogwarts knows about this place except for me. But obviously you're not from Hogwarts, are you? I've never seen you before."

"I'm starting here for seventh year. I was homeschooled before that's why you haven't seen me." she explained.

"Oh, well may I ask why you were homeschooled?"

"No."

"May I ask your name?"

"It's Katherine." she said. He thought the name suited her. She continued, "Now may I ask you something? Do you usually lurk around trees in the middle of the night scaring people half to death?"

Totally offended he said, "For starters, I do not _lurk_. Second of all, do you usually spend all your time sitting under trees in the middle of the night writing in you diary?"

"Yes, actually I do. But I also spend my time _reading_ under trees." And at that he laughed surprised by this girl's spunk. None of the girls at Hogwarts talked back to him like that. Katherine was different and he liked it a lot.

"What? I'm serious." she said, confused by his laughter.

"No, I'm Sirius." he said still chuckling.

"What?" she gave him a look like he was crazy, laughing and talking nonsense.

He stopped laughing and gave her a grin. "My name. It's Sirius. Sirius Black."


	3. Chapter 3

The boy stopped laughing and gave her a grin. "My name. It's Sirius. Sirius Black."

Katherine stared at this boy with his black hair, long enough to be tied in a ponytail, and his striking grey eyes that gave her a playful look. He was tall and well built as he looked down at her confused face. Katherine could see that he was all casual elegance, he never moved without being graceful and he stood there in his baby blue shirt that brought out his grey eyes, with his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face.

_This must be him then, _she thought but couldn't bring herself to believe it.

He was enjoying the confused affect his joke had made, but Katherine recovered quickly and gave him a glare.

Sirius just laughed at her glare and asked, "So, why the sudden transfer from homeschooling?"

Katherine didn't want to reveal too much but then figured that Sirius seemed like the type who could find out anything if he really wanted to. "I wanted to get out of my house. I wanted to experience being around people my own age."

"Then why do you spend all your time reading under trees?" he joked.

"Because, my grandmother has a giant willow tree in her backyard that I love to sit under." Katherine replied matter-of-factly while thinking of the real reason she picked that specific tree.

"Do you spend all your time at your grandmother's then? What about your parents?" he was now getting too close to a sensitive subject but she replied anyway that her parents had died when she was 5 years old.

"What about you? Your parents?" she asked.

"None that I talk to. I moved out after sixth year with the money my Uncle Alphard left me after he died. I was sick of them and their pure-blood ways." he said with a bitter voice. She admired his courage; for it had taken a prophecy to get her to live her own life.

"Then I guess you're not in Slytherin. And judging by the way you act, I guess you're in Gryffindor, right?" Katherine guessed.

"Good guess, I am. But what about you? What house are you going to be in?" He leaned towards her, curious.

Katherine backed up a step and replied that McGonagall had already tried the Sorting Hat on her that afternoon and she had been sorted into Gryffindor.

"That's great! Then I'll be seeing you around a lot!" he said seeming genuinely pleased with her answer. "Well, since we both can't sleep and we know there are a hundred things you could be doing rather than writing in your diary, what say you that we spend this wonderful night in the moonlight together?" he said with some flare. Katherine noted that he was definitely someone who oozed flare.

Katherine gave him a skeptical look, how could she trust this boy she had just met in the middle of the night – especially one who she should've been technically avoiding. Sirius gave her no time to consider this question as he packed up her diary and silver pen into her bag and shuffled her out of the trees.

"I'm going to take you on a tour of the grounds," he said and added as an afterthought, "and maybe we can have a snack on the way to the common room as well." he seemed determined and Katherine did not have the heart to refuse. Despite herself, her heart was slowly pounding with anticipation to see how their ill-fated relationship would play out.

Sirius was not usually this excited but around this girl he couldn't help himself. Somehow, he wanted to learn as much as he could about her and spend as much time with her as he could. He was lonely on this moonlit night and he wanted to spend it being around her.

He took her around the grounds, to the quidditch pitch first and told about his best mate, James being the captain and how Sirius himself was on the team. He encouraged her to come out and cheer for their team. She replied enthusiastically that she was excited to see her first Hogwarts quidditch game. He talked endlessly about Hogwarts and his friends the Marauders and as they walked by the Forbidden Forest he could tell she was slightly scared so he walked close to her so she knew he was nearby to protect her. He told her about the classes and the teachers as they walked by the vegetable patch and when they reached the greenhouses he took her inside to take a look. She listened well but also talked as much as he did, her violet eyes twinkling when the moonlight hit them. They exchanged endless banter arguing about their different perspectives on several subjects.

Sirius felt himself slowly falling deeper and deeper into her eyes. He could tell she could not see how beautiful she was and that made her all the more. He couldn't stop himself from rambling in front of this girl whose laugh turned him into a fool.

Finally, Sirius took them inside the castle, quiet as possible so as not to get into trouble. When she moved to go to the Gryffindor tower he blocked her way, took her by the shoulders and turned her around, "I have a surprise that you're going to love. But I have to ask. Do you like to anticipate or do you like to be surprised?" his eyes twinkled with mischief.

"Surprised. Definitely surprised." she whispered leaning towards him so he could hear.

He led her down one of the long dark corridors and stopped right before a large painting of a fruit bowl. In the center of the fruit bowl was a pale green pear. "Tickle the pear." he said, absolutely serious.

Katherine almost burst out laughing in the quiet corridor and stopped herself as she looked at Sirius and saw that he was in-fact serious.

To his surprise, she followed his absurd request and tickled the pear which promptly turned into a doorknob. He turned it and opened the door to Hogwarts' one and only kitchen.

"Welcome to the kitchens." He said with a flourish of his arm to the large, high-ceiled room filled with mounds of glittering brass pots and pans by the stone walls, and the four great long tables identical to the ones in the Great Hall above. Throughout the whole room, house-elves could be seen working diligently to make food for the students of Hogwarts.

"This is amazing." Katherine said, blown away by the size of room and the speed of the house-elves, she watched their bobbing heads and pointed ears. She turned to Sirius who wore a grin, pleased that he could surprise her so well.

"Hello, master Black. Would the lady and yourself like us to set you up with some tea and cakes. I'm terribly sorry but we don't have everything ready for breakfast just yet." said a small house-elf who had left his work to see to the guests.

"Not a problem, cakes and tea sounds great, don't you think, Katherine?" Katherine stared at him still in wide-eyed amazement, absently nodding her head. Sirius chuckled and led her to a small table in the back of the room with two chairs and the food already warm and ready.

"How did you find this place?" she asked, very curious now.

"Well, the Marauders and I often go exploring so this place was easy enough to find." he said with a smirk and a wink.

She shook her head and laughed, Sirius enjoyed the beautiful sound as it was like soft bells chiming.

After another hour of talking and eating their cakes, it was six in the morning and the two of them started nodding off and yawning every other second. They walked back to the common room in the comfortable silence of their newly formed friendship. At the bottom of the stairs that split into boys' and girls' dorms they bid each other a good night when it was really morning and went up to their beds to sleep at least for an hour or two before classes started that day.

Sirius walked into the room and flopped on the bed not caring if he woke up the still snoring James or the quiet sleeper, Remus and definitely not caring if he woke up small little Peter who slept through anything. He had had a wonderful night with this girl who seemed like a dream. He was almost scared that if he closed his eyes to go to sleep she would disappear when he woke up again.


	4. Chapter 4

"Wake up, Katherine! Wake up! WAKE UP!" shouted Lily to her still sleeping roommate. There was only ten minutes before breakfast and Katherine was still stretched out on her bed fast asleep. Lily, who had gotten tired of shouting, walked up right next to Katherine's bed and shouted in her ear, "WAKE UP!"

Katherine jumped up screaming bloody murder and stopped at the look on Lily's face. "You know, we did just meet yesterday and I didn't know we were at the stage of yelling in each other's ears." This was actually quite true since, they had met the previous night in their dorm room after the feast since Katherine had arrived late. Lily's friend Marlene had also been there and the three of them talked until bedtime like they had been best friends all their lives.

"Yes but with you I feel like we're already best friends." Lily smiled wickedly and threw a towel at Katherine's head. "Go shower."

"Yes, mom." Katherine headed into the bathroom and took quick shower and then got changed into her Hogwart's uniform for the first time. She looked at herself in the mirror, at her long frizzy curls, her knobby knees that peeked out from her skirt, and at her glasses that took up most of her face. She put on her contacts, the only improvement she thought she had ever made to her appearance and said to her reflection, "Well, this is as good as it's going to get." She headed down to breakfast with Lily as they met Marlene at the foot of the stairs.

"I'm so tired. My eyelids feel like they're glued shut." Katherine complained as she walked sluggishly behind Lily and Marlene.

"Why are you so tired? Didn't you go to bed at the same time as us?" asked Marlene.

"I did but I woke up later in the night because I couldn't sleep." Katherine said avoiding their eyes, conveniently leaving out that she would have gotten back to sleep earlier if she hadn't met a certain grey-eyed boy. She didn't want to launch into the complicated explanation of how she ended up spending the whole night with Sirius, who Lily and Marlene still thought she hadn't met. She remembered how they talked of him as James' best mate and how his social life was much more than active, she didn't want any misunderstandings.

But really, she still couldn't believe what a great night she had and she was almost scared that it all might've been a dream and that when she met Sirius at breakfast he would act like he never even knew her. She did not feel confident enough to believe that any boy, let alone Sirius Black, would have spent all that time with her just because they wanted to. Just because they liked being around her.

"Lily! Over here!" James called across the hall for them to come sit with him and his friends. Lily and Marlene led Katherine to the Gryffindor table to where James and the Marauders were. Katherine keenly searched the table with her eyes looking for Sirius, but she did not see him anywhere. Lily sat down next to James and Marlene sat across from them next to Remus who was next to Peter. Katherine seated herself next to Lily still wondering where the grey eyed boy was. She was totally distracted while Lily started introducing her to the Marauders.

"This is James, Remus and Peter." she said as she pointed to each of them in turn. They all were very funny, asking Katherine a few questions and pulling some jokes. She noticed how they all called each other by odd nicknames, James was Prongs, Remus was Moony and Peter was Wormtail. She wondered what Sirius' nickname was. The Marauders' were very much like how Sirius had described them and she could tell that Sirius and James seemed to be the troublemakers whereas, Remus was much more serene and calm, and Peter just seemed to go along with everything they did.

"So, I have to ask Katherine, how are your eyes such a vibrant purple? It's not a normal eye colour, are you perhaps part Metamorphmagus?" asked James quite curious. The group looked at her but before Katherine could reply, their eyes turned to Sirius who came out of nowhere, and sat down right next to her, throwing an arm over her shoulder. "They're beautiful, aren't they, her eyes?" He looked her straight into said eyes with that same grin he had on when they met. Katherine crumbled under the intensity of his gaze and quickly looked at her plate of unfinished French toast.

Everyone turned to the pair of them, eyes narrowing on the arm on her shoulder and Lily asked what they were all thinking, "You two have met?"

"Why, yes we did, just yesterday. After dinner, when Katherine arrived late." he coolly lied.

Katherine didn't know why but she played along, shrugging of his arm, she said "Yeah, I was lost and he pointed me to the Gryffindor common room." she smiled hopefully convincingly.

Lily's gaze softened after Sirius' arm had returned to his side. She did not want her new friend to get too mixed up with Sirius. He was a good guy at heart but a lot of trouble and she was scared that it would be bad for her friend who was so new to everything after being homeschooled for so long.

"Well then, I guess we won't be in need of anymore introductions before class." said Lily while Katherine and Sirius shared a look.

Breakfast continued on after that and Katherine was amazed by the refilling plates, even though she knew that it was all the elves' magic with the identical tables in the kitchens, after seeing it the night before with Sirius. They talked about their classes and teachers and the eventual NEWT's they would have to take. The group gave Katherine detailed instructions on how to navigate through the castle but she was overwhelmed by all the advice that when it was time for class and Lily had left with Marlene to Divination, she was at a loss of how to get to her Alchemy class. Alchemy was only offered to sixth and seventh years and it only ran if there was sufficient numbers of students that wanted to take it. Luckily, that year Katherine had gotten to take Alchemy and Dumbledore had asked his good friend Nicholas Flammel if his apprentice, Thomas Dorn – who was also an amazing alchemist – could teach the Alchemy class that year.

Just as Katherine was trying to figure out which way to go, Sirius called to her from the end of the corridor, "You coming or not? Alchemy's this way!" He pointed behind himself with a smirk.

"You're taking alchemy?" she asked genuinely surprised.

"Of course, I am. It's one of the most interesting subjects and I'm definitely not taking Divination." He beckoned to her with one hand while the other was firmly in his pocket as usual. She hurried towards him and they fell in step together, totally matched in pace. She looked up at him as he stared forward, he was really quite handsome. He caught her staring and asked, "What're you looking at?"

"Nothing." she said quickly, but then added, "So, what was that about earlier? You lying that we met when I arrived."

"I feel like if we told them we met in the middle of the night and spent the rest of it together they might misunderstand. And besides," he leaned forward until he was all but 3 inches from her and said, "I'd like that memory to be between just you and me." He gave her a grin, the heart-stopping kind and with a lone gaze of his eyes he pulled himself back away from her and they continued their way to Alchemy.

All Katherine could think as they walked was that trying her fate was going to be much harder than she thought.


	5. Chapter 5

Alchemy was everything Katherine had been hoping for. Professor Dorn was an excellent teacher, he had already gotten them drawing transmutation circles and doing simple transmutations by the end of the class. Sirius had been pleasant through the whole class, not speaking much but he did stay very close to her. When Professor Dorn had told them to get into pairs Sirius immediately stuck to her side without a word. He seemed to be very tired much like herself but no less suave than usual.

After all her classes Katherine went straight to her bed in the dorm and told Lily not to wake her unless it was absolutely necessary. Lily had realized just how tired Katherine must have been as she wandered down to the common room to start on her Potions homework. She found James and Peter sitting at the table by the fireplace listening to Remus as he helped them with their work.

"Is Remus helping you with the Charms homework? Where's Sirius? Doesn't he usually help you with Charms, James?" she asked curious at the change in usual routine.

"Yes he does, but Sirius is much too busy sleeping upstairs. He said he slept really late last night and that he's tired." James shrugged.

Lily found this piece of information intriguing since Katherine and Sirius both were sleeping because they slept late the night before. She was a little worried that if they had spent the whole night together somehow, Sirius must be trying to use his charms on her new friend. Katherine seemed like a very innocent girl, having only had her grandmother and being homeschooled all her life. Lily was scared that Sirius' influence could harm Katherine. She had known Sirius just as long as James and where James had been arrogant and annoying, Sirius had been delusive and a downright casanova.

She decided to believe it was just a coincidence and sat down to do her homework. It was only the first day and she was already worrying too much.

Over the next few weeks, classes went on and Katherine continued to get lost as usual unless, she had the occasional guidance of himself who insisted on walking her to some of her classes when he could. She realized that compared to mountains of work her grandmother would give her when she was homeschooled, the work at Hogwarts was much less that she was surprised at all her free time to hang out with her roommates and often times the Marauders as well. The only thing that she lacked though was practical skill with spells. Her theory and written work got her good marks but she began tanking the practical assignments in Transfiguration, Charms and Potions. Her grandmother had not let her do too much magic at home and focused mainly on theory. Katherine finally decided to enlist the help of Lily for Potions and Marlene for Transfiguration, but Lily did not have enough time to help Katherine with Charms since she was taking more than the required course load that year.

Therefore, late one night when Katherine was in the common room attempting the vinegar to wine charm she was continuously failing and ending up with half-vinegar and half-wine to make a very light pink solution.

Sirius walked in with his casual elegance, hands in his pockets, wisps of his hair in his eyes and he spotted her pink solution and asked with a smirk, "Is that a love potion? For me? I knew you had a thing for me but this won't make me actually love you. "

"Ha ha ha. I was actually planning on using it to make you my eternal slave. Then you could do all my Charms homework for me."

"The vinegar to wine spell? Well, you need some help, don't you?"

"Way to state the obvious. Now, could you help me? Lily is too busy with her Ancient Runes homework."

Sirius stepped in front of the bottle next to Katherine and muttered the spell with a wave of his wand. Instantly, it turned to deep red wine and he opened the bottle for her to smell. "See it's easy. Now you try." He grabbed one of the other bottles of vinegar she had had ready and positioned it in front of her.

Katherine faced the bottle, determinedly gripping her wand and tried again. Her thoughts were too focused on the grey eyes staring at her and as a result, her vinegar turned orange and started giving off an acrid smell.

"Okay, well that was a good try..." Sirius said trying not to laugh.

"Don't laugh! I was really trying hard that time!" she glared at him which only made him laugh even more.

"Okay, okay I'm sorry. It's just so hard not to laugh when you're trying so adorably hard." He chuckled and Katherine tried not to think about him calling her adorable. "Okay, here, try again but this time don't grip your wand so tight or think too much. Just think about the wine, how it smells and looks and say the spell."

Katherine took a step back and loosened her grip on her wand. She emptied her mind to think of only of the wine Sirius had made earlier. She waved her wand and said the spell but this time the vinegar turned purple, almost the shade of her eyes.

This time Sirius laughed hard without restrain and Katherine couldn't help laughing herself. When they had stopped Sirius said, "Okay, I think you're just trying too hard. Just relax." Then without warning, he stepped up behind her, his chest against her back and brought his hand over her wand hand. The tips of Katherine's fingers tingled at his touch, her heart leapt into her throat and the room suddenly felt very hot. He put his other hand on her shoulder, her muscles tensed so he whispered next to her ear, "Just relax, lower your shoulders, loosen your arm and just say the spell without another thought." His warm breath tickled her ear and neck and she shivered slightly. When she had finally relaxed her muscles he moved her hand in the motion for the spell as she said it. The result was a perfect bottle of cherry red wine.

"I did it! Finally!" Katherine gazed amazedly at the bottle of wine and Sirius gazed amazedly at her beautiful smile.

Not realizing Sirius' movements or aware of his arms still around her Katherine was immersed in her success when Lily suddenly entered through the portrait door, arms full of books.

Lily stared at their position with wide eyes as they hastily jumped apart at her entrance. "What are you two doing?"

"I was just helping Katherine out with her Charms spell. The one we learned in class yesterday, remember? Vinegar to wine." Sirius said as he shoved his now very warm hands into his pockets. He did not once waver in eye contact.

Lily eyed the wine and Katherine's now slightly pink cheeks. "And you were only teaching her? Not anything else?" She glared daggers at Sirius.

"Of course I wasn't just teaching her." Katherine gave him a startled look. "I was also insulting her previous concoctions." She let out her held breath.

Lily only softened her gaze a little and announced she was going to bed and that Katherine should join her soon too.

Katherine and Sirius watched as Lily cantered up the stairs until she finally disappeared behind the door, at which time they looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Without words they knew they did not need to talk about the previous moment. They were friends, very good friends who had grown close very quickly.

Neither of them understood the feelings they had had in that short moment.


	6. Chapter 6

As the leaves began to turn a hundred shades of red, orange and yellow and as they began to float down in fiery showers, the students of Hogwarts were enjoying the season very much. Voices could be heard around the castle excitedly discussing the Halloween dance that was to be in a week.

Only the fifth, sixth and seventh years were allowed to attend, so naturally everyone was scrambling to find dates for the dance, but not only that everyone was also desperately searching for the best costume to wear to the dance. Dumbledore had put out a contest that whoever had the best costume, male and female would earn their house a hundred points.

All the fifth, sixth and seventh years were in a flurry trying to find or make the best costume. People were consulting each other with ideas but they also were greedily hiding them from other houses.

Katherine was not one of these people. She loved Halloween but she wanted to just enjoy dressing up for fun rather than for a contest. This was going to be her first time dressing up for Halloween since she had never had the chance or reason to before. Her grandmother had never let her outside to trick or treat and Katherine never saw the point in dressing up if she wasn't to go outside.

Lily and Marlene on the other hand were frantically trying to figure out an awesome costume. For the past couple days Marlene had been worrying if she would be able to find a date since all the offers she had received had been from boys she refused to go with but she still insisted that she could not go without a date.

Every time she said this Katherine would interject saying, "You don't need a man to complete you therefore, you don't need a date to go to a dance."

"Coming from the girl who also does not have a date." she shot back. "Almost everyone has a date by now except for a few people in seventh year and I sure as hell am not going with a sixth year."

"How about that guy in Hufflepuff who had a crush on you last year?" asked Lily.

"Andrew? He's too short and he's too clingy." Marlene said while she stretched herself out like a cat on one of the couches by the fire in the common room.

"Then how about Carter, from Ravenclaw? He's tall and he would look good in the king of spades costume to go with your queen of hearts costume." Katherine suggested.

"Katherine! You're a genius! Why didn't I think of him?" Marlene jumped off the couch, threw on her sweater and ran out of the common room to find Carter.

"One down. Two more lonely lasses to go." Lily said with a nervous laugh.

"And I'm guessing you're hoping James will ask you soon aren't you?" Katherine nudged her shoulder playfully.

"Am not!" Lily exclaimed, her cheeks flaming the same shade as her hair. Katherine laughed as Lily disappeared saying she had to go to the library.

Suddenly, a voice spoke from right behind her said, "Good. She's gone to the library. James just went there to ask her to the dance."

Katherine, surprised by the voice's nearness turned to face him but in the process whacked him in the head with her thick, long hair.

"Ow! Watch where you fling that, will you?" Sirius shouted.

"You shouldn't have snuck up on me then!" she crossed her arms. "But what's this about James asking Lily to the dance?"

"He's been working up the courage all week and finally decided to do it today before it was too late. I was just with him when he left to go see if she was in the library."

"That's wonderful. Lily's going to be so excited!" Katherine cooed.

"What about you? No suitors knocking on your door to whisk you away to the dance next week?" Sirius' voice was softer now, almost as if he wasn't sure of the question.

"Why? Were you planning on becoming one of them?" She said while attempting to copy one of his annoying smirks.

"Sorry, love. I know how much you like me but I like going solo to these things." He said with a trademark grin.

"Oh what will I do now? Who will take me to the ball?" She put the back of her hand to her forehead and sighed like a damsel in distress. "I'm the same. I like going solo to these things as well."

Sirius was relieved by this to know that she would not be going with another guy but he didn't know why he was feeling so relieved. They were friends and he knew that but he couldn't stop himself from thinking about her when he shouldn't have been or seeing her smile in his head wherever he went.

"I'm so excited!" Lily shouted as she flopped on the bed with her costume in hand. She had found the perfect costume for James and herself. To match her beautiful red hair they were going to go as Ariel and Eric from the Little Mermaid.

Katherine had found this idea quite adorable because she thought Lily would be the perfect princess and James would be the perfect starry-eyed-in-love prince, especially for Lily.

"Are you excited about the costumes? Or excited about James?" Katherine asked moving her eyebrows up and down with a smirk.

"Both." Lily stuck out her tongue and then added, "What about you? Are you planning on being the only one there without a date?"

"I will not be the only one without a date. Besides there is no one I would want to go with anyway."

"I find that hard to believe but oh well. What are going to wear at least?"

"That will be a secret until the night of so just wait a few days and you'll find out." she smiled brightly, excited about her costume.

On the night of, Lily and Marlene spent two hours before the dance getting ready, doing their hair and makeup to match their costumes while Katherine waited reading on the bed until they had time to help her with hers. Once they were done everything but putting on their outfits they worked on taming Katherine's unruly hair to be put up in rolling curls held with a blue ribbon. They then worked on her makeup, putting on very little but enough to emphasize her bright eyes and pink lips. When they were all done, the three of them quickly put on their costumes helping each other tie things here and zip things there. Finally, 10 minutes before the dance they set off down the halls of the castle towards the Great Hall.

James was pacing outside the doors of the Great Hall. Sirius found it hilarious how worried James was before the dance waiting for Lily. He also found the billowing sleeves of James' costume funny as they flapped as James walked back and forth.

"Laugh all you want. I'll just laugh at your hat." James cursed with a glare.

"For your information my hat is what's going to win me the contest." Sirius declared brandishing his large hat that had a single long white feather. He was dressed in his elaborate pirate outfit as the evil Captain Hook. When James had asked him before why he wanted to be a villain, Sirius had replied that he was much too evil to be the hero. He stomped across the hall in his pirate boots to Remus and Peter both dressed in fantastic costumes. Peter was dressed as the Rat King from the Nutcracker, when he had showed the rest of the Marauders they laughed at how well it suited him. Remus was dressed as Quasimodo, from the Hunchback of Notre Dame complete with an authentic looking hunchback.

They had all decided to wait for the girls together before going for the dance but the girls were obviously running late, Sirius could hear the Weird Sisters already blaring on their instruments in the Great Hall.

Just at that moment they heard the sound of heels coming down the stairs and Sirius turned towards the sound to find something he wasn't expecting.

He didn't know about the others but he couldn't peel his eyes away from Katherine. Her long black hair was tied up in large corkscrew curls with a blue ribbon. She was wearing a floor length light blue dress that looked thin and silky like a nightdress. It was trimmed at the waist with another blue ribbon of darker shade and her sleeves were short and slightly puffed. She was wearing nude flats to seem like she was barefoot. Her eyes looked big and beautiful and her soft pink lips wouldn't stop distracting him.

She looked like a goddess, but he knew exactly who she was dressed as, for she was from the exact same movie as his character. She was the lovely and innocent Wendy Darling from Peter Pan.


	7. Chapter 7

_Captain Hook: (sarcastically) "Good heavens, run. Run for your lives. It's... a little girl."_

_Wendy: My parents wanted me to grow up. _  
_Captain Hook: Growing up is such a barbarous business, full of inconvenience... and pimples._

_Wendy: Might I have time to consider your generous offer? _  
_Captain Hook: Absolutely. You must! _

* * *

Katherine was baffled at the coincidence that she and Sirius had worn costumes from the same story, but she had no time to think this over more as they entered the Great Hall.

After first it was too dark compared to the hallway that she could not see anything, but when her eyes finally adjusted after much blinking, she was captivated. The ever-changing ceiling of the Great hall was dark and stormy with bats flying across the sky but not making as much noise as one would expect. Below that hung the glowing pumpkins, carved with fiendish faces, suspended in mid-air by magic. The torches on the walls were toned down to small flames, just enough to see the person in front of you while dancing. Fake cobwebs and real spiders covered the walls as a freaky background. In the far corner was a mini-stage where the Weird Sisters played their songs while white light flashed over them. In the other corner was a snack bar full of pumpkin pasties, treacle tarts, cauldron cakes and pumpkin juice, Katherine could smell the treats from the door.

Katherine and Marlene immediately attacked the snack bar without another word leaving the boys to their own conversations. Lily and James also broke off from the group in their own conversation but soon after Lily dragged James to the dance floor.

After filling themselves up with treacle tarts, Marlene left to dance with her date Carter while Katherine walked back to where the boys had been.

As she approached them, Sirius looked right at her while sarcastically saying, "Good heavens, run. Run for your lives. It's... a little girl."

Katherine laughed at him quoting Hook when one of her favourite Weird Sisters' songs came on. She grabbed Sirius by the wrist and pulled him to the dance floor.

This left Peter all alone in his Rat King costume sulking, for Remus had been asked to dance by a girl from Ravenclaw.

As Katherine walked with Sirius to the dance floor, she noticed other peoples' costumes. The Slytherins had mostly taken the scarier approach with their costumes dressing as dark creatures while Ravenclaws dressed mostly as famous figures and Hufflepuffs dressed in classic muggle Halloween costumes.

For the next while Katherine and Sirius spent their time together dancing to the fast tunes enjoying themselves immensely in the pulsating atmosphere.

After a couple of songs a few of Sirius' ever-so-faithful fangirls got up the courage to ask him to dance but every time he sent them away saying he was dancing with Katherine.

Katherine found this strange so she told him, "You know there are plenty of people here we're dancing around. It's not like I'll be alone if you want to dance with any of those girls."

"The thing is, I don't want to dance with them. I very much like dancing here with you." He grinned to prove his point and Katherine just smiled shaking her head not at him but at the fluttery feeling in her stomach.

There were only three slow songs in the Weird Sisters' repertoire for the dance and for each song Sirius did some very unusual things.

When the first slow song came on, couples rushed to find each other, girls looked around for the boys they secretly wanted to ask them to dance and boys marched up to the girls who they had finally had the guts to ask to dance.

One of these said boys was Gregory from Hufflepuff who had walked across the dance towards where Katherine and Sirius were to ask Katherine dance. Gregory was a handsome fellow, tall, blond, charming which was one of the reasons why Sirius instantly hated him.

"Katherine, do you want to dance with me?" Gregory asked Katherine flashing his million-dollar smile.

Before Katherine could say anything, Sirius stepped between them, his back to her, saying, "I'm sorry but Katherine and I were just on our way to have some pumpkin pasties. Better luck next time." He then grabbed her arm and with much protest on Katherine's part, and dragged her to the snack bar.

Katherine yanked her arm out of his grasp. "What was that? Why did you get involved when he was asking _me_ to dance? I'm pretty sure you're name isn't Katherine." she asked incredulously.

"I was helping you out. Gregory has the worst breath; you don't want to be anywhere near that toxic gas." He made a gagging face for emphasis but Katherine knew he was lying she just wasn't sure why he _was_ lying. Marlene had told her before about Gregory since she had been considering him as a potential date. Marlene had said that Gregory was absolutely perfect and that's why he would never say yes to her. Katherine was sure that Marlene would've mentioned it if he had horrible breath.

Katherine couldn't see why Sirius was doing this but she decided not to dwell on it and have fun, it wasn't like she liked Gregory anyway.

She snacked on pumpkin pasties, still slightly angry at Sirius and looked over at the couples dancing. She noticed Peter leaning against the wall looking dejected while a spider climbed on his shoulder without him noticing. He had obviously been rejected by a girl.

She saw Lily and James under one of the low-hanging pumpkins dancing closely, immersed in each other's eyes like no one but they existed in the world.

Sirius had followed her gaze and said matter-of-factly, "They're perfect together."

Katherine replied with an envious sigh, "Yeah. They are."

In the distance she heard a high-pitched scream. Peter had finally noticed the spider.

Sirius' second unusual act came at the second slow dance. Gregory, who had obviously taken Sirius' words, "Better luck next time." to heart, walked over to them to ask Katherine to dance again. At the same time, a boy from Ravenclaw named Jeff made his way over for the same reason.

Katherine was not used to this kind of attention from boys and Sirius didn't even give her the chance to find out as he distracted the boys saying, "Oh, there you two are! McGonagall just told me she was looking for you two. She said something about being very disappointed and detention for week. You should probably go see her before she bumps it up to a month." Both boys' faces turned flustered and worried as they rushed off to find McGonagall unaware that she had just left the Great Hall altogether.

"You've done it again, Sirius. And don't tell me Jeff has bad breath too." she shot him a glare.

"No, Jeff has a load of dandruff. You definitely don't want that flaking on your shoulder." he said with a sly grin and ran off before she could beat him across the head.

"I will never dance with a boy with him around." she said quietly to herself.

Finally, after dancing quite a lot and sweating through their clothes, Sirius and Katherine left the dance floor to get some fresh air and rest in the hallway.

The hallway torches were now dim unlike before so they were still cloaked in semi-darkness. The two of them spent this time walking along the corridor talking about nonsense and laughing anyway.

At one point in their conversation Sirius complemented Katherine's costume saying it suited her very well.

"I only wish my mother could see it. It's my first time dressing up for Halloween since I was five and I think she would've liked to see at least a picture. My grandma always said that my mother loved dressing me up in ridiculous costumes." Katherine said thoughtfully.

"I'm sure she would have been proud that you don't look ridiculous this time." He said with a small, very small but sweet smile.

Katherine smiled at him and to change the mood, she crossed her arms and said abruptly, "My parents wanted me to grow up."

Sirius laughed at her reference to the movie and replied, "Growing up is such a barbarous business, full of inconvenience... and pimples."

They both burst out laughing and finally made their way back inside the Great Hall where the dance was almost over. The lead singer of the Weird Sisters spoke into the microphone, "Okay guys, this is going to be the last song of the night, so grab that special someone for the last time tonight."

People were shuffling around to find partners as the lead singer began the song with a soft and enchanting voice. Katherine glimpsed Lily and Marlene each happily moving to the dance floor with their dates. She turned towards Sirius to find him trying to tell her something but she couldn't hear him over the music.

"What? I can't hear you!"

He obviously lost his patience so he stepped right up to her and leaned his head in the space next to her ear, saying, "I said...May I have this dance?"

Katherine shivered at his breath on her neck but she replied with an innocent look, "Might I have time to consider your generous offer?"

"Absolutely. You must!" he said with the authority of a Captain. They laughed lightly together and Katherine nodded her consent.

Sirius moved his head a little ways back but he was still close to hers. He lightly took her waist in his hands, his fingers resting naturally on her hips. Katherine tentatively placed her hands on his broad shoulders not sure what to do or how to act but Sirius soon lead her into the slow rhythm of the music and they swayed lightly.

Though their bodies became more natural, Katherine did not know where to place her gaze. At first, she could only look down and then at the stain on the wall behind his head but suddenly when he raised his head they're eyes locked and she couldn't hear a thing around her or see anything but him.

There was something so fascinating about his grey eyes, calm and steady yet mysterious like the moon.

Katherine could feel something stirring in her heart. Something more than just a simple friendship. Something more like love.

They stayed locked in the embrace of their bodies and eyes long after the song had ended not noticing at all what was going on around them.

Katherine felt her palms get sweaty and broke contact and Sirius soon followed her as they let go of each other.

"Well, I'll uh...um see you tomorrow." said Sirius nervously rubbing the back of his neck. Katherine had never seen him get nervous or not be perfectly poised in any situation. She liked seeing his vulnerable side.

They parted ways and Katherine found Lily and Marlene and they headed up to the dorms totally exhausted.

When they arrived in the room, Lily and Marlene took off their costumes and jumped right in bed. Katherine changed into her doggy pyjamas and found on her bed a letter signed on the envelope by her Grandmama. Katherine had not gone to breakfast that morning so the letter must've been left for in her dorm.

She opened it, always glad to hear from her grandmother, even if she had gone against her wishes to come to Hogwarts. Everything about the letter was the usual news, questions about school and friends, questions about her time there but at the end of the letter was something Katherine had known her Grandmama would eventually bring up.

"_I hope you're having a great time there and I hope it was worth all the trouble you had going against my judgement but please tell me you have been careful. I hope you have been thinking of the prophecy and haven't gone looking for trouble. And if you have, which I know you probably must've, I hope you didn't meet anyone at a blossom tree or that you are staying away from them. I don't want to see my only granddaughter hurt and I definitely don't want to see your demise. Just be careful, my little Katherine._

_ Always with love,_

_ Grandmama."_

Katherine sat on her bed with a sigh, dropping the letter on the bed. She had not thought about the prophecy in a long time with her mind so focused on school and settling in. She knew she should've been heeding the words of her prophecy but she couldn't bring herself to listen to it. She did not believe that her fate was decided and she definitely did not want to shape her actions on the possibility of something bad happening. If she was to follow this prophecy's warning and stay away from the man she meets under the cherry blossom tree, she was doing a very poor job of it.

Sirius was getting much too close and she wasn't sure if it was for the best. But she wasn't going to do anything to stop it.

He seemed to be worth too much in her heart to lose.


	8. Chapter 8

Lily was desperately trying to ignore two things while making her Ageing Potion with James during their Potions class with the Ravenclaws. She was pouring various ingredients in while James was trying to be useful but not knowing what to do, Potions had never been his best class. From the beginning of the year Professor Slughorn had assigned bench partners, Lily, who had been planning to make Katherine her partner, had been assigned to be partners with James. Funny enough, Katherine had been paired with Sirius, whom James had originally been planning to be partners with.

When Lily asked for Professor Slughorn's reasoning, he said "Those two troublemakers together would blow up the whole castle, let alone the classroom."

But being partners with James was not the problem she was trying to ignore at that moment. She did actually enjoy spending more time with James, though she would never admit it.

What was really bothering her was Sirius and Katherine being paired and the two Ravenclaw girls shamelessly gossiping loud enough for Lily and James to hear, about said pair.

Sirius and Katherine had certainly gotten very close the past few months. Lily had been scared by just finding out their suspicious first meeting but their closeness was bothering her even more.

Lily found them together all the time. When Sirius wasn't with James or the Marauders, he was with Katherine. When Katherine wasn't with Lily or Marlene, she was with Sirius. The two of them spent a lot of time talking and laughing, working on homework together, walking on the grounds together and who knows what else.

Lily was fine by this, Sirius and Katherine were very good friends, but she noticed recently that their physical contact had increased just as much as their time spent together. Nothing more than strictly friendly gestures had occurred, but it was much more than necessary. Sirius was often just casually putting his arm around Katherine when they walked around the grounds, or whenever he was happy or excited about something he would hug her or pick her up and spin her around, and he would always take the seat right next to Katherine whenever they all gathered in the common room.

Lily had noticed that at first Katherine was surprised by the excessive physical contact but after some time Katherine had obviously gotten used to it and was comfortable with it. Lily had not found this reassuring.

What made all this even worse was the fact that everyone else in the school was beginning to think that Sirius and Katherine were actually dating. The rumour was going around that Sirius Black had finally settled down and found a girlfriend.

"Do you think it's true that they're dating? She's not even that pretty! Look at the way she just shamelessly touches him!" whined one of the gossiping Ravenclaw girls sitting at the bench across from Lily and James'. She had light brown hair and a flat nose, Lily couldn't remember if her name was Betty or Bertha.

The other girl was taller with a pencil-thin body and she whined as well, "There is no way its true! Sirius has never had an actual girlfriend and she's no reason for him to start!"

Lily was annoyed and James could tell but before he could stop her, Lily slammed down her test tube and tongs onto the scratched up table and walked up to the bench of the Ravenclaw girls.

"Hey, guys! Can I borrow a test tube? Mine's broken as you can see." She pointed over to her table where a bewildered James was cleaning up the broken glass with a spell. She snatched the one the Betty/Bertha was holding and leaned forward. In a deathly whisper she stated, "The only shameless ones are you two here gossiping."

The two girls were shell-shocked in embarrassment as Lily walked back to her table. She looked to her left where Katherine and Sirius' table was and she crinkled her nose as Sirius had chosen that moment to hold Katherine's hand steady as she poured one of the key ingredients into her cauldron carefully. He was standing much closer to her than necessary.

"If only you would let me do that." James joked, finally getting Lily's attention as she turned to give him a great look of mortification. James chuckled and continued, "You know, there isn't anything going on between them. Well, not yet anyway."

"Because that's reassuring." she said bitterly.

"I don't understand what you're so worried about though. It's not like Sirius is going to eat her or something.

"I'd rather he tried that, Katherine would jinx him before he got one bite." Lily sighed. "It's not that. I'm just worried that Sirius will do with Katherine what he's done with every other girl. I mean I really do love Sirius as a friend, but when it comes to girls he gets them to like him and then never gives them a second glance. Katherine's so innocent and inexperienced; I'm just scared he might break her heart."

James gave her a sad smile. "I don't think you know this, but I have never seen Sirius spend this much time with any other girl before or act the way he does around her. The way I see it, it won't be Sirius breaking Katherine's heart, it'll be completely the other way around."

Contrary to what Lily thought, Katherine was not totally unaffected by Sirius' excessive physical contact. They had become so close that it was completely natural and comfortable but Katherine was still thrown in states of butterfly stomachs whenever Sirius touched her.

When Lily had voiced her concern to Katherine, she was slightly surprised for she had not thought everyone else could see how excessive it was. She was also surprised when Lily told her that the other houses thought that she and Sirius were dating.

"That's ridiculous!" Katherine rolled over in her bed laughing when Lily had told her before bed.

"Yeah, but that's what everyone thinks."

"Well, I don't care what everyone else thinks, I care what I think and I think that that's ridiculous." But this did not mean she totally forgot about it the next morning.

On their way to Alchemy together, Sirius had thrown his arm over her shoulders leaning on her as they walked, claiming he slept late and was too tired to walk by himself, his eyes drooped convincingly. Half-way there Katherine abruptly stopped walking, gently picked his arm off and faced him.

"What's wrong?" he asked still fake-tired.

"Why are you always doing that?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Doing what?" He knew exactly what she meant but did not want to have to answer her question.

"Why are you always being so..I don't know..touchy? You're always putting your arm around me like this, or giving me hugs, picking me up, or sitting next to me when sometimes there is a perfectly good seat next to Remus or James. I mean one time you even shoved yourself between Remus and I so that you could sit next to me. Why are you doing those things? People are even starting to think we're dating."

Sirius looked fully awake now but nervous as he pushed his hand through his black hair. His storm grey eyes avoided hers as he replied, "I don't know why I do it. I just like being around you."

His eyes finally looked down to meet hers and he smiled a small smile. "But you're my friend, so I'm sorry if it bothered you. I promise I'll be more careful from now on."

_Friend._ Of course that's all she was to him but Katherine had really only wanted a reason. She hadn't been expecting a total stop on his behaviour. It wasn't like she outright hated it she just wanted to know how he felt.

Left to these confusing thoughts they continued their way to Alchemy, but Katherine obviously hadn't noticed how when Sirius had said those words, his smile hadn't been a real one.


	9. Chapter 9

"IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED!" Katherine shouted down the corridor as she ran towards Sirius who had been standing at the top of the stairs and had just turned around in surprise. Katherine was moving at a speed much too fast, so she slammed right into Sirius, resulting in their tumble down the stairs.

Katherine closed her eyes waiting for the pain but it did not come. At least, it had not come as a very sharp pain but a dull pain of bouncing down the stairs. She opened her eyes to find herself on top a groaning Sirius Black who had broken the fall, receiving the sharp pain from the stairs on his back.

"Ah! Are you okay?" Katherine asked incredulously but he replied with mumbles and groans.

She grabbed his arm and helped him up but when she tried to let go he insisted with more groaning that he could not walk on his own and that she had to help him walk to the common room as her punishment for practically pushing him down the stairs.

The two trudged along as Sirius continuously claimed he was in pain and Katherine pretended she believed him.

"Why in the world were you shouting down the hall anyway?" Sirius finally asked after much bickering.

"Oh my god! I just remembered! I was running to tell you something! Something big!"

"What? What is it? What happened?" Sirius edged closer to her, his arm still around her for support.

A mischievously excited grin passed over Katherine's face. She looked around down the corridor to see if anyone was listening and then exclaimed, "IT FINALLY HAPPENED! THEY'RE DATING!"

"Who? JAMES AND LILY? He finally did it then! He said he was going ask her to Hogsmeade as his girlfriend but I didn't believe he'd actually do it! This is fantastic!" Sirius took this moment to put his hands on Katherine's waist, lifting her as he spun her around in joy. Sirius was strong so this was a simple feat for him but it made Katherine feel weightless. She had her arms on his shoulders as he spun her around. She looked down at him and he looked up into her eyes, his filled with bliss. It was that moment where he seemed most beautiful to her. And something in her heart constricted.

Sirius finally let her down but they ended up standing face to face very close together. Her face was inches away from his and strands of her hair fell on his eyes. He had a difficult time resisting the urge to close the distance. It was getting harder for him every time. He awkwardly stepped away from her, suddenly remembering what she had said before about him being too close.

They finally gathered their thoughts and continued to the common room, talking about the many times they had wished James would have seriously asked Lily out or hoped that Lily would have accepted James' ridiculous attempts to woo her earlier.

"What are we going to do now? Lily's going with James so you and I are just a duo for the Hogsmeade trip." complained Marlene, lying on one of the couches by the fire.

Katherine stared at the pink Hogsmeade trip notice pinned to the bulletin board in the common room.

"Well, if you think it'll be more fun with more people then I guess I could ask Sirius if you and I could hang out with him and the rest of the Marauders during the trip." she said thoughtfully.

"You and Sirius are pretty close, huh? Walking to class together, talking together all the time, discussing Hogsmeade plans..." Marlene said lifting her eyebrows up and down suggestively.

"I said I could ask, not that we already talked about it. And yes. We are close but we're just friends, is that a problem?"

"No, of course not. I just think it might be a little more than 'just friends'." She lifted her hands for the air quotation marks but before Katherine could reply that there was nothing more, she continued,

"Don't worry, you can have Black all to yourself at Hogsmeade to think about whether you're 'just friends' or more, because I think I'm going to take Anna from Ravenclaw up on her offer to hang out with her and a few of her friends."

Katherine didn't bother resisting Marlene relentless comments on her friendship with Sirius and just asked, "Do any of these 'friends' of Anna's happen to be cute boys?"

"Only a few." Marlene said with a smile and a wink, marching off to bed.

"So you're telling me, that you got rejected by your only two friends to go to Hogsmeade and so you're asking if you can hang out with me?" Sirius said laughing at Katherine's pathetic predicament.

"No. They're not my only friends. You're my friend, that's why I'm asking you!" she exclaimed in annoyance.

"Yeah, but you're just using me as a second choice." he faked sadness and Katherine punched him in the arm.

"Just say you will."

"Alright, alright. I know how happy you will be to have my charming presence beside you, so don't worry I'll hang out with you." Sirius played cocky like he was born for it and for that he received yet another blow, but this time to his inflated head.

Lily held up a straightener to her bright red hair, attempting a wavy look to it. She wanted to look nice for her first date with James that day to Hogsmeade.

"That looks pretty. James is going to be head over heels for you today." Katherine said kindly.

"He already is." Marlene called from inside the bathroom. Katherine laughed and Lily turned a deep shade of red to match her hair.

She recovered quickly by changing the subject to Katherine.

"Hey, Katherine." Lily gave her a long look. "Have you ever thought about straightening your hair?"

It was true that Katherine had thought of straightening her sea of black, frizzy curls just for fun, but she had never had the means or the occasion to do so.

Lily continued, "Because I have a straightener here and I'm really curious as to how you would look. Can I straighten your hair, please? Pretty please?"

"I guess so. We have enough time before we leave and I'm pretty curious too." Katherine agreed.

Lily was overjoyed and Marlene came rushing out of the bathroom to help.

Exactly two hours later Lily and Marlene had finally managed to tame and straighten every strand of Katherine's mane of hair.

"That took much longer than expected." Marlene laughed.

"But it was worth it. Look in the mirror Katherine." Lily turned Katherine's chair around to face the mirror on the wall.

Katherine was scared to see how she looked, so she immediately focused on the travelling crack in the mirror. It started in the top right corner and moved down towards the center. She took a deep breath and focused on her reflection.

After seeing herself everyday with a bush of hair around her head she was utterly speechless at the smooth, long and flowing hair around her. She lifted a hand to run her fingers through the now untangled mess of hair that flowed like a river over her shoulders and down her back. It reached past her waist and she had a hard time not getting it in anything.

Lily and Marlene excitedly announced that every boy at Hogwarts would be looking Katherine's way that day, and they were right.

The girls headed down to the front of the castle for attendance before the trip. As they passed by people they knew, Katherine received compliments by the dozen and amazed looks at how different she looked.

Katherine was anticipating only one person's reaction, though she couldn't admit it to herself. She was eagerly sweeping the halls with her gaze hoping to catch sight of a certain grey-eyed boy.

When they arrived at the entrance to the castle, Marlene went off to meet Anna while Lily and Katherine walked towards the back of the crowd where the Marauders were.

Katherine took a confident pace watching Sirius speaking intently with James – probably about a new prank – and willed him in her mind to look up, to see her.

And he did. But unlike James, Remus and Peter's reactions which were wide-eyed looks and compliments, Sirius just stared with a look she hadn't ever seen on him before and he said not a word.


	10. Chapter 10

Despite herself Katherine could not help being slightly peeved at Sirius' lack of reaction to her hair but she tried her best to make the most out of her first Hogsmeade trip. They started the trip out quite awkwardly after Lily and James had left for their date and Remus and Peter had left to their own musings. They walked side by side, locked in the same pace but not daring to breathe a word. Something was blocking them from their usually comfortable conversation in walks like that one.

On several attempts Sirius was about to say something only to be stopped just by glancing at Katherine. She did not look happy and he was at a loss as to why. He continued his stolen glances and careful pace next to her through the whole walk to Hogsmeade.

Two girls behind them from Ravenclaw whom Sirius had recalled to be in their Potions class were attempting to whisper as they gossiped. Sirius could hear the tall skinny one saying, "They must be dating! They're here at Hogsmeade together!"

Sirius had heard from James of the scandalous rumors that Katherine and he were dating. It was one of the reasons why he decided he had to stop being so affectionate with Katherine when she had asked him to stop. He hadn't wanted her to feel uncomfortable because of such rumors but they obviously hadn't gone away.

Sirius had thought only he had heard the two girls talking but Katherine had obviously heard too because the next thing he knew she turned around, stopping the Ravenclaw girls in their tracks and shamelessly declared in an angry voice, "For you information, Sirius and I are not dating. We did not come here as dates, but as friends." And with that she turned back to Sirius, who was staring in disbelief, and she marched off in a quickened pace.

Yeah. She was definitely angry. Too bad darling Mr. Black was just too slow to figure it out.

Katherine's mood improved later on when the group arrived in Hogsmeade. She was revitalized by the beautiful scenery of the small wizarding village. She looked in giddy awe at the thatched roofs of the numerous shops and homes and at the glowing enchanted candles hanging in the trees. It became a winter wonderland in her eyes and she was much happier to Sirius' relief.

Sirius was a wonderful guide as he described each shop as they passed by them on High Street. He spoke of Dervish & Banges that sold and repaired magical items, Dogweed & Deathcap a herbology shop, Ollivander's Local Wand shop in Hogsmeade and the local cauldron shop.

After passing all these, Sirius took Katherine to the infamous Honeydukes sweet shop. Katherine became a little girl on Christmas morning at the sight of all the chocolates and sweets, truffles and treats. She left with a bag loaded full of them and Sirius laughed at the sugar-crazy look on her face.

They visited Scrivenshaft's Quill shop where Katherine gazed at the countless types of quills: the Everlasting-ink quill, the Erasable ink quill, the Drawing-to-Life quill, etc.

Sirius took them to Tomes and Scrolls where he learned the extent of Katherine's love of novels and journals. At her insistence he bought her a new journal for the one that had gotten damaged aas she had been surprised by him when they first met.

They of course visited Zonko's Joke Shop where Sirius had said he needed to stock up on supplies since James did not have the time to during his date that day.

At one point in their enjoyable day while Katherine had been busy mailing a letter to her grandmother at the post office, Sirius had slipped next door to the small vintage jewelry shop. When she had finished mailing the letter, Sirius slipped back out of the shop and met her at the door while stuffing a medium-sized package into his coat pocket. She decided not to say anything about it.

Finally, they reached the far side of the village where the sports shop, Spintwitches, stood. Sirius entered excitedly gazing at the quidditch gear all round him. Katherine wandered around and noticed Sirius was particularly looking at a pair of beater's gloves. They were thick dark brown sturdy leather lined with gold and red threads at the stitches and on the inside. He reluctantly left the one-of-a-kind gloves to look at some new models of brooms on the other side of the shop.

Katherine took this short opportunity to grab the gloves and hurry to the counter. She remembered Sirius talking about the upcoming quidditch match and she wanted to get him a gift.

When the young man at the cash register told her of the monogramming service they offered, she happily agreed. She quickly stuffed the box with the gloves inside her bag before Sirius came back looking for her on the way out.

"Alright. Everything I have shown you up until now is nothing compared to this place." Katherine had felt the warmth of Sirius' breathy whisper next to her ear as he held his hands over her eyes for the surprise. He stood close behind her as he led her into a clearing with the exception of a lone crumbling shack. Usually, the students of Hogwarts had to look from other side of the fence far from the Shrieking Shack, but Sirius being the mischievous boy he was, knew another route toward the back of the Shack. It was there where he lifted his hands from Katherine's eyes as she stared in amazement at the haunted looking building. It was a two-story old house with windows boarded up and broken steps to the door.

They were but 10 feet from the place and it was sending chills down Katherine's spine. Katherine took a small step backwards subconsciously right into Sirius' chest but when she tried to move away, he held her there. Her long straight hair blew in the strong breeze wrapping itself tenderly around him.

Katherine stuttered, "Wh-what is this place?"

"This is the Shrieking Shack. The local legend is that sad and angry ghosts haunt this place. Many of the villagers claim to have heard screams of pain and terror coming from inside. Everyone stays away because they're scared. What about you? Do you think it's haunted? Are you scared?"

Katherine couldn't take the ghost stories and talk of haunted screams so close to such a freaky looking place. She turned around against Sirius' chest and said, "Can we go? Please? I – I'm scared. "

Sirius had not expected such a gentle fear from the ever-confident Katherine. He smiled to himself as he put an arm around her and led her away from the Shack.

Since the Shack was quite far from High Street they had a long walk ahead of them. But the weather, fickle as it was, decided at that moment to let out a heavy shower of rain on them. Sirius and Katherine ran but could not escape getting soaked through and through. When they finally reached the edge of the town they hurried under the side of the roof of one of the shops.

Sirius squeezed the water out of his clothes while they waited for the rain to stop. Katherine wiped from her face the lose strands of her hair when she realized that the rain had turned her straight locks into clumps of thick curly hair. She stared at the grungy mess hanging in front of her eyes, she tried pulling a few strands straight but of course they only sprang right back to place.

"Lily's going to kill me! I ruined all her hard work on my hair!" Katherine declared with a huff, disappointed that her moment of beauty had disappeared so quickly. "It's all frizzy and it'll never be as pretty as before." She had never been so upset about her appearance as she was this time.

Sirius had his hands in his pockets as he kicked the ground lightly with one foot. He lifted his head up at her last remark with a look of incredulity. "That's not true."

He turned his body to face her as well now. He grabbed her wrist and he looked determined, like he had to make her understand what he was saying. "I admit you looked gorgeous with your hair straight today, but to me you look the most beautiful when you leave your hair in its natural curls." He lifted his other hand and fingered at her wet curls, almost distractedly. He looked back in her eyes and said with the same firmness, "You, the way _you_ are, will always be more beautiful than any other version you make of yourself."

Katherine stared in disbelief. She had finally gotten a reaction, though it was not what she had been expecting. Something about the way he said that made her heart that was crawling into a box, want to come out again.

Sirius had noticed her shiver from the cold of being wet. He took off his dry white knit sweater from underneath his soaking coat and pulled it over her head. He pulled her arms through each hole as she said nothing. The sweater was much too big and hung down to her mid-thigh, the sleeves hanging off her hands, and the shoulders too broad for her small ones.

Sirius then edged closer to her until they were sharing body heat. When Katherine gave him a look he replied innocently, "Well, I'm cold too."

The rain had finally stopped and they started walking back but were already late to meet the rest of their friends at Three Broomsticks for some warm Butterbeer.

Katherine wrapped her arms around herself breathing in the scent of Sirius' warm sweater. It smelled like fire and wood. Warm and strong. Just like him.

He still walked close to her, adding to her warmth, but she thought he did it more for her than for himself as he had claimed he did.

When they reached Three Broomsticks Sirius opened the door for her and they hurried into the warm pub full of chatting voices and the clinking of glasses on the tables. Madam Rosmerta stood at the counter talking with her customers and sliding large glasses full of butterbeer down to them. The pub felt warm and smelled like a candy and fire. They spotted Lily, James, Marlene, Peter and Remus all talking at a table in the back by the fireplace and James waved them over.

When they all realized that Sirius and Katherine had gotten caught in the rain they moved them to the fire to dry off and Lily brought them warm and toasty Butterbeer.

Katherine took it from Lily eagerly and rubbed her palms on the warm glass. She took a small sip and was filled with warmth.

"How is it? It's your first time trying Three Broomstick's Butterbeer right?" Sirius asked sipping his hot drink.

"Yeah it is. It feels warm and tastes like home and friends. I love it."

"You can taste all that?" he chuckled, "I think I do too." he smiled then, one of his rare, truly happy smiles and Katherine couldn't help smile herself.

The rest of the group continued chatting on together but James and Lily noticed the looks between the two of them, the sweater on Katherine's shoulders, and the mystifying smile on Sirius' face. Lily recalled the look on Sirius' face that morning with a smile and how Katherine had mistaken it for indifference and she knew as well as James did that it is was more like a look of love, but whether Katherine or even Sirius himself realized this they did not know.

"Hey," Sirius grabbed Katherine's wrist to stop her from walking away. Everyone was now heading back to Hogwarts and their group had just exited Three Broomsticks.

Sirius continued when she turned around to face him, "I have to tell you something."

"What is it?" Katherine inquired quietly.

Sirius looked her in the eye and said, "Not now. Will you meet me at the cherry blossom tree tonight? After everyone's asleep, just before midnight?"

"Alright. I'll see you then." Katherine smiled and then hurried to catch up with Lily and Marlene.

She and Sirius had often seen each other during one of their sleepless nights at the cherry blossom tree, spent their time in each other's company, but this time Katherine had a feeling it was going to be different.


	11. Chapter 11

Sirius listened to the sound of a nearby cricket and searched for it in the dew covered grass. He noticed a Jobberknoll with its blue speckled feathers, flitting around the branches of the blossom tree making no noise. The blue of its feathers stood out in comparison to the white cherry blossoms and made Sirius think of the forget-me-not flowers he had seen in the jewellery shop that afternoon while Katherine had been in the post office.

He had entered the musty old jewellery shop with the intention of buying her a gift. He wanted to get her something useful, so when he looked at the display at the counter he laid eyes on something he knew she would love. Laid on a black velvet cushion in the display case was a hardcover blue journal, thick and heavily bound with a latch on the side. It was covered in dark-grey silver tribal designs that were imprinted on the binding. He had already bought her a journal at the bookstore but this one seemed like the perfect gift for her.

When he asked the shopkeeper – an old man with a long white beard and white cane – whether he could buy it, the old man pulled out from a cupboard by the counter a small black box. He turned it to face Sirius and opened it to reveal a necklace. It had a thin chain and from it hung a small wrought-iron key pendant. Both were dark-grey silver and the key had a small blue stone inlaid to match the diary.

The shopkeeper then spoke in a soft mystifying voice. "Good choice, boy. This diary is a one-of-a-kind for it was bound by magic making it indestructible. It cannot be opened by any means other than the key on this necklace. But the true power of this diary is that the writer will always remember that which they have written inside it. The necklace in turn is scented like forget-me-not flowers to match."

It was with said necklace that Sirius was pacing back and forth in nervousness awaiting Katherine's arrival at the blossom tree. He pulled the small box from his pocket thinking about what he wanted to say to her. What he had wanted to say to her from the moment he met her.

His thoughts were interrupted by Katherine's sudden appearance in the distance and he stuffed the box back in his pocket. He watched her as she walked slowly towards the tree not yet able to see him.

When she arrived he noticed her attire of white flannel pajamas that matched the blossoms and a grey cloak thrown over for the cold.

"Hey." she said with a small smile.

"Hey." he said dumbfounded by her beauty even in flannel.

She stepped forward until she was foot in front of him and asked, "So why did you want to see me in the middle of the night today? What is it that you wanted to tell me?" Her voice was quiet and kind.

Sirius faltered, this girl made him speechless without even trying but he took a deep breath and said, "Before I tell you, I want to give you something first."

But as he was about to pull the box out of his pocket to give her the necklace a blue speckled feather landed on his shoulder and he noticed the Jobberknoll from before flying hurriedly away from the tree. He glanced down and saw what it was flying away from.

Slithering across the grass was a seven foot long, orange and black striped, snake. As if that wasn't bad enough, this one had three heads, characteristic of a Runespoor and it was heading straight for Katherine's ankle with its poisonous fangs.

In that moment Sirius could not think so he reacted – his only aim to protect her, launching from his spot he transformed into a dog. He attacked the snake before it could bite Katherine but it wrapped its thick body around his front right leg and reared its fangs to bite him on the shoulder. Wounded he was weakened but he managed to bite the snake back and it unravelled itself slithering away, retreating into the distance as Sirius turned back to human bleeding terribly as he laid on the ground heaving from the pain.

Through all this Katherine stared in shock, as it all happened too fast for her to understand. It was already hard enough to realize that Sirius had just transformed into a dog but she couldn't behold the sight of him bleeding so much.

Sirius saw her staring at him in a mix of shock, confusion and horror and he tried to sit up but groaned in pain. She rushed forward and knelt next to him helping him up.

"I can explain." he breathed.

Katherine finally found her voice and replied with a stern look on her panicked face, "Your explanation can wait. We have to stop your bleeding."

She laid his head in her lap, his forehead now covered in sweat, as she worked on ripping his right sleeve off without hurting him. When she finally got it off she ripped it at the seams and wrapped it tightly around his shoulder wound as he gasped in pain.

"That'll stop the bleeding but not for long and we still have to stop the poison from spreading past your shoulder." it was at this time that she started breaking down in worry as she said, "I don't know the antidote for Runespoor poison. What are we going to do?"

Her breathing was shallow and she was on the brink of hyperventilating when Sirius replied, "I know the antidote and it's actually in the school. Slughorn has it in one of his classrooms, we just have to go in and take it." He grabbed her shoulder with his good arm and shook her, "It's going to be fine. I just need you to take me to Slughorn's classroom."

She was stirred by his words and tried her best to be strong again as she painstakingly helped him stand as he threw his good arm over her and she held him by the waist supporting him to walk. They trudged on in this position into the castle as quietly as they could often taking breaks so that Sirius wouldn't pass out in fatigue.

"This is nice. A quiet stroll in the castle with just the two of us in the middle of the night." Sirius attempted at joking to make her feel better.

She looked up at his gauntly face, pale and covered in sweat. "Why did you even attack that thing? You could've been killed!"

"Yeah, but _you_ could've been killed. And I personally wouldn't have stood around to watch it happen." He said this, all joking aside.

She faltered but regained composure saying, "You still shouldn't have done that. Look at you now. You're bleeding like crazy, the poison is spreading through your body and you're near passing out."

"Yeah but I'm still standing." He grinned and Katherine couldn't help her heart breaking but she pushed him along faster, hoping they had enough time.

They reached the classroom finally and Katherine helped Sirius onto one of the long stretching tables at the back of the room. She hurried back to the door and locked it with a spell before returning to make Sirius lie down. She searched through the cupboards by Slughorn's desk and finally in his glass cabinet found a tiny flask of the dark orange Runespoor antidote Sirius had described.

"Drink all of it. Every single drop." she said just before pouring it in his mouth as he gulped it down.

Sirius looked immediately better because unlike the poison the antidote was fast-acting and before long his original colour returned and he looked only tired.

"Thank god it's working. Now we only have to worry about the bite wound." She carefully unwrapped his shoulder but noticed that the wound extended near his chest.

"Sirius. It looks like it's bigger than I thought. I need you to take off your shirt." she mumbled the last part but Sirius of course caught it all the same.

"What's that? You want my shirt off? Well, you should've asked sooner, love." he said as he pulled off his shirt.

Katherine awkwardly avoided looking at his chest and tried her best to focus on his broad shoulder as she took a wet cloth to clean away the dried blood. She was blushing uncontrollably and Sirius smirked at her predicament. His bleeding had stopped so when she had finished cleaning the blood, Katherine had only to seal the wound by pouring some essence of dittany on it and bandaging it up.

When she finished her work, Sirius put his shirt back on and sat up to face her, they both were exhausted.

"Now, you can explain." she sighed.


	12. Chapter 12

Sirius stared at the fearful sight of Katherine's white flannel pajamas covered in blood. It was painful to see her like that, as if she was the one hurt and bleeding. He looked at her face that was waiting for any rationalization for what happened before and realized with a jolt that he hadn't gotten to give her the necklace in all the confusion. It didn't seem like the time to give it to her then, so he launched instead into his explanation.

"I'm an Animagus. I turn into a huge black dog just like you saw. But I'm technically an unregistered one, along with James and Peter so no one but Lily – who James told – knows about us." He looked up at Katherine's expression but it betrayed no information. He continued, "We did it to help Remus, whom I'm pretty sure you already know about don't you?"

Katherine stirred at this "Yeah I do. I had a feeling as soon as he wasn't showing up for days during times of the full moon. My grandmother had a friend who was a werewolf. He was the same as Remus during full moons. But how did you know that I knew?"

"You were extra nice to him during full moons." Sirius chuckled as if she was the easiest book to be read.

"If you turn into a huge black dog, what do James and Peter turn in to?" she asked curiously.

"James turns into a great stag and Peter a rat. Hence the nicknames: Prongs, Wormtail, Moony and Padfoot." Sirius smiled and to his relief Katherine smiled as well. He was happy to know that she was able to accept his truth.

"What I don't understand is how the Runespoor even got in the grounds. There's no way it was by accident. They originate from Africa, but there are a lot of Dark wizards who own them so the only reason I can think of is that someone sent it, but why would they want to attack you?" Sirius asked connecting the dots together.

Katherine breathed heavily before replying, "There's something I need to tell you."

"Remember when I told you that my parents died when I was 5 years old? Well, they were killed. By Voldemort." Katherine declared and Sirius' lips parted for a reply but she cut him off continuing, "My father was a Death Eater but when he met my muggle-born mother he realized he'd been doing wrong, so he left and they went into hiding. They had me and for five years Voldemort never found them. But one day he finally did and he killed them. Grandmama tells me that I was there when he did it. She said I was watching from the window of the closed backyard door and that Voldemort never saw me and therefore never knew about me."

"Wait, your grandmother told you? But you were there, don't you remember?" Sirius asked, his eyebrows drawing down and his mouth pursed in a straight line.

Katherine smiled bitterly at his question and replied, "I was there. But after experiencing that tragedy I developed an – ability, you could say."

"What kind of ability?" he asked cautiously.

Katherine took a deep breath, "Grandmama told me that my heart couldn't stand the pain of losing my parents in such a vivid, violent way, that I couldn't stand the memory of their deaths or any memory of them that made me miss them so much. So, I developed an ability to forget the memories that hurt me. But the most fearful part of this ability is that I can make anyone I want, forget."

Katherine stayed silent a moment for it to sink in and continued on despite Sirius' stunned face, "After their deaths Grandmama kept me locked in the house because of two reasons. One, was to make sure Voldemort never found out about my parents having a child because my grandmother knew that if he found out he would come to finish the job. The second, more prominent reason was that I couldn't control my power to alter memory. At the beginning I was overwhelmed when I was around other people, because I could sense when they had a painful memory they wanted to erase. I couldn't control it so I would accidentally make them forget. My grandmother helped me so that I could restore their memories but it traumatized me to feel the power I had against them. Now, I am completely in control and I don't sense that someone wants to forget something unless I'm trying to. Like right now, you want to forget the image of me covered in blood because it makes you feel like I'm the one dying."

Sirius was speechless at this but Katherine only felt sick.

"I'm telling you this because I think Voldemort may have found out about me. I think he must've been the one who sent the Runespoor and if he's found out about me then it's only a matter of time before he finds out about my ability." Katherine sighed.

Sirius recovered at this illogical piece of information and asked, "But if you can make anyone forget anything, then why can't you just make Voldemort forget about you?"

"That's where things get complicated. Although I can make anyone I want forget any memory I choose, I can't do the same to Voldemort. The reason is that since my ability sprang from my desire to forget that which he caused, my ability is inexplicably connected to him. It draws on him for power and up until now he would've thought it was just a strange pull in his strength but if he knows about me like I think he does, he'll soon connect it to me."

Katherine was finished her story and she waited as Sirius sat in silence. After a long, anxious wait Sirius asked the last question she expected, "So you don't remember your parents? At all?"

"No. I don't. It was too painful to hold on to even the good memories, because they made me miss them more than I could handle, therefore I chose to erase everything."

"Then you could get those memories back if you wanted ,right?" He looked into her eyes at last as he leaned his arms on his knees, his hands clasped together. He was but inches from her. Katherine itched to touch him, to find some solace in his embrace, but she held back.

"Yes...I could, but I can't, I won't. It hurts too much to even try. It doesn't matter anymore anyway. They're not here." Katherine could feel a knot forming in her throat and she looked away from him.

"Alright. Alright." He laid a hand reassuringly on her knee and squeezed. He let go straightening up and continued, "I just have one more question."

"What is it?" Katherine asked somewhat fearful and knowing of what it may be.

"Have you ever made me forget?"

His question pierced her like a blade but she knew it was justified. She clasped her hands together under her chin almost as if praying and said, "I have never used my ability unless I have had the absolute need to. I have never used it for my own benefit. Memories are the only things that make us who we are and I would definitely not want to take that away from someone. With that said, I have never used it on Lily or Marlene or the Marauders or anyone at this school." she paused taking a breath, she let out shakily, "And I have never used it on you."

There was a long silence until Sirius abruptly stood up and put out his hand to her. "Thank you."

Katherine stared at his outstretched hand, "For what?"

He took her hand to lift her from her seat and threw his arm over her for support. "For telling me everything."

They did not talk as they walked back to the dorm for neither could think of what to say. Sirius was fine now but he insisted on leaning on her for support. As they walked down the seventh floor corridor they heard a noise up ahead rounding the corner, a cat's meow and the rasping voice of Filch that chanted, "Students out of bed. Tsk, tsk. It'll be off to the dungeon to be tied up by your toes."

Sirius and Katherine panicked. Sirius had not brought the Marauder's map with him that day so they were totally taken aback by Filch's sudden appearance. They had to hide before he saw them and as Sirius searched the left wall of the seventh floor corridor for somewhere to hid, a door appeared almost as if it wasn't there before and he pulled Katherine inside. It was a small broom closet enough space for barely two people so while Katherine was pushed against the wall, Sirius stood closely in front of her his hand on the doorknob to keep it closed. Sirius had to bend his head down because of the low ceiling and they both strained their ears for the sounds of Filch passing by.

Sirius listened to the short breaths Katherine took and observed the perspiration on her neck, gazing down at her violet eyes filled with panic that stared in level with his chest with nowhere else to look. His gaze moved down to her soft pink lips and he moved toward them without thinking.

Katherine noticed him moving his head down to hers and looked up. Their lips were now inches from each other as Sirius moved closer and closer. Katherine felt her heart pounding against her chest and hoped he couldn't hear the sound as edged back against the wall and closed her eyes unable to look at him this closely.

A million thoughts were running through Sirius' head: how he had not gotten to tell how he felt earlier, to confess and give her the necklace, how he wasn't sure if kissing her without knowing if she reciprocated his feelings was the best idea for their friendship, how if it had been any other girl he wouldn't have cared, but how Katherine was different and much more special to him, and lastly he thought of how he so desperately wanted to kiss her.

But despite that, he hesitated. And then he lifted his head, reluctantly pulling away from her and said, "Filch is gone. We can go now." He couldn't act without thinking when it came to her, he wanted to do things right.

He watched as Katherine opened her eyes, a look of confusion on her face. Her lips pursed in a straight line she shoved her way out of the closet and did not wait for him to follow.

Sirius had obviously done something wrong but before he could talk to her she reached the Gryffindor tower and rushed up the girls' stairs without a word.

Sirius watched her go and thought bitterly that if he kept a diary like Katherine did, in that moment he would have written: _Dear diary, I have officially screwed things up with the only girl I've ever really liked. Thank you, I really do try._

* * *

**_A/N: Please review!_**


	13. Chapter 13

"What is going on between you two?" Lily asked gently. "One minute you two were the best of friends and now it seems to me that something's...off. What happened?"

Katherine thought back to that moment in the closet. The moment when she had hopelessly hoped that he liked her. That he had looked past what she had told him about herself and thought of her as someone he liked. Someone kissable. But now she had to deal with the fact that she was wrong.

She realized that he only thought of her as a friend and nothing more. She was just another friend, just another girl to him, nothing more. Katherine's heart sank at Lily's words; it sank because she was realizing then that she really did like him. A lot. And she didn't know how to deal with that. She never knew liking someone could hurt this much. She had never felt this way about anyone before.

She hated herself for being disappointed that he wasn't the one in the prophecy, that her love that was supposed to "move the sun and the other stars", wasn't going to happen.

"Nothing happened, Lily. I was just tired today, that's all. Nothing's wrong. I'm going to bed." And with that Katherine sunk into her bed and pulled the sheets over her head, feeling utterly pathetic but unable to do anything about it. Only one thought ran through her head as she tried to sleep. _Is my first love becoming an unrequited one?_

Lily stared at the outline of Katherine under the covers; she thought of that morning during breakfast when Katherine and Sirius had sat next to each other as they always did but something seemed different. The usual comfortable air between them had become awkward and forced. They talked like they normally did but not with the same closeness or enthusiasm and Lily could tell that something had gone wrong.

She sighed picking up her textbooks and made her way down to the common room to help James with his Transfiguration homework. When she reached him she sat down with a flop and asked him, "Do you know what's going on between Katherine and Sirius? They seemed really different today."

"I don't know, Lil. I tried talking to Sirius but he said it was nothing. Don't worry, Lil they'll work it out. I have a feeling they're probably just getting past the friend stage and into the 'I-like-you-do-you-like-me?' phase." He smiled reassuringly and Lily leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Can we not study today?" she said quietly, like a wish to herself.

"Did you just say what I think you said?! Of course we don't have to study!" he looked at her hopefully.

"I may not, but _you _do or do you plan on getting detention again for not turning in your Transfiguration homework?"

"But that was only one time!" he objected and Lily just put an arm through his and flipped open her textbook.

"I almost kissed her, that's what happened." Sirius muttered.

"What you mean _almost_?" James asked skeptically.

"As in, we were hiding from Filch in that small closet and I just really wanted to kiss her."

"So _why_ didn't you?!" James asked incredulously. "If you like a girl, you kiss her. What doesn't make sense about that?"

"Yeah, I know that. I told you that. But, I don't know James. She's different. I couldn't just kiss her without knowing if she felt the same way." Sirius said solemnly.

"You could've found out when you kissed her! Any other girl before and you would've just kissed her and gotten it done with." James exclaimed, amazed by what Sirius did. It was unlike him to act that way. The Sirius he knew had never hesitated on anything. Not when he moved out of his house nor when he stopped talking to his parents, not when dated a new girl nor when he broke up with her.

"Yeah, but she isn't just _any other girl_, James! That's what I'm trying to say here! Katherine is the first girl I have ever been so close to and been proper friends with. From the beginning she has been more than just some girl. But now of course, she doesn't seem to want to even be friends with me." Sirius dropped his head in his hands. His voice lowered as he continued, "Everything was fine until I tried to kiss her and now I feel like I'm tiptoeing around in circles not knowing what to say to her or how to act. I just don't know how she feels and its driving me insane! All the girls before it didn't matter but with her I have to know. I need her to feel the way I do. I need to know that she'll like me the same way."

James looked at his best friend, who he had always known to be strong and confident. If this girl could break down all that exterior arrogance and reach the broken little boy inside, then he guessed that Sirius must've really been in love with her.

"Don't fret, Padfoot. She won't stay upset forever. The way I see it, she upset for one of two reasons. One, she upset you even thought about trying to kiss her because you guys are friends. Or two and the much more likely reason, is that she's upset that you _didn't_ kiss her. I think it's because you had the chance to kiss her and you backed out and now she thinks you don't like her."

Sirius stared at his friend. "Since when did you get so good with knowing how girls felt?"

James grinned. "It's called being in a steady relationship."

"So what do I do now?"

"Go out there and actually try to talk to her about it. Don't be gentle, just get her to listen. She's not going to want to talk to you if she thinks you're just trying to be her friend. And do it before the quidditch game tomorrow, please. I don't need you spacing out about your girl problems during our important match with Slytherin."

"Hey! Katherine! Stop, I need to talk to you!" Sirius called down the corridor.

Katherine turned to Lily, "Tell him I had to see McGonagall or something. Just make something up, I'm leaving!"

Before she could run away, Lily caught her by the sleeve and said, "Wait, why? Just talk to him. You guys can't stay awkward like this and you definitely can't avoid him for the rest of your life."

"Yes, I can. I just have to make it through this year. Bye." And with that she yanked her arm out of Lily's grip and hurried to the library.

Sirius, who had finally made it through the crowd of students going to their next classes, found Lily by herself, "Where'd she go? I just saw her!"

"She ran away. She doesn't want to talk about whatever it is that messed you two up but I want you to know that you shouldn't stop trying." She said this with the utmost sincerity and command.

"I thought you didn't want me to be anything more than friends with Katherine?" Sirius asked skeptically.

"I did at first. I didn't want her to be another one of your girls to date and then break up with. But I'm starting to see that she's much more to you than that, am I right?"

"She is. And thanks for telling me that." he said. "But I can try all I want to talk to her but that's not going to make her talk to me. This is my third time trying to talk to her but she's run away again." Sirius was starting to lose hope in James' 'she's-upset-that-you-didn't-kiss-her-and-she-actually-likes-you-theory' and starting to think she didn't really feel the same way.

"That's because it hurts her to see you. You just need to find a way so that it doesn't."

Lily gave no explanation to that cryptic sentence and Sirius said that he would try to talk to her but his resolve was slowing crumbling. He felt like he was fighting a battle on his own or talking to wall that would never respond. "Can you make sure she at least comes to the quidditch game tomorrow? I know how much she wanted to see it and I don't want her to not come because of me."

* * *

**A/N: I have the next chapter ready to be posted at any time but only if you review! :)**


	14. Chapter 14

"You're going to the game today and that's final." Lily said with the motherly tone she naturally had.

"Fine I'll go but you have to stop trying to get me to talk to Sirius." Katherine wasn't planning on missing the game no matter how upset or awkward she was with Sirius. She had been waiting to see a real live quidditch game since she was little. Her grandmother had never let her go to any games because of the large crowd that would be there. Her grandmother was afraid she would lose control on her powers and do something harmful.

Besides, she knew how much the match meant to Sirius and she didn't want him to be unsettled if she wasn't there. And she couldn't let him go if she still had something to give him.

"Okay guys! Get inside and get changed into your quidditch robes!" James yelled to his teammates.

The team shuffled into the change rooms and Sirius went to his locker.

He still hadn't talked to Katherine yet and he was feeling anxious. The longer he didn't get to talk her, the sooner he felt it would be too late.

He opened his locker to get his quidditch robes to find a long box placed on the shelf. He only ever kept his robes in his locker so he didn't know where the box came from. He opened it carefully – imagining Slytherin players putting dungbombs inside – to find beater's gloves. They were made of thick dark brown sturdy leather and were lined with gold and red threads at the stitches. He realized that they were the ones he had wanted to buy when they had been in Hogsmeade. But the only person who was with him and who could've of known about them was….

"Hey! Geoffrey! You came in the change room first, right?" Sirius called to the only third year on the team.

"Yeah, I was."

"Did you see anyone in here when you came in? Maybe near my locker?" he questioned.

"No, I didn't. Sorry."

Sirius heart sagged. He had been so sure that she had left them for him.

"Oh! Wait, there was someone in here though. After we all left the room for practice. It was a girl." Geoffrey exclaimed remembering.

"What girl? What does she look like?" Sirius was now walking toward Geoffrey.

"She had long black curly hair and violet eyes. The one that's always hanging out with you."

It was her. It was Katherine. She had bought him the gloves and gave it to him even though he had totally screwed things up. Even though she thought he didn't like her, she still did.

Sirius rushed out on to the field and looked at the crowd of Gryffindors. He searched high and low and finally found her sitting next to the bright and smiling Lily. Katherine looked excited but a little dumbfounded like she had just done something she couldn't believe. He watched as she finally saw him on the field and gave out a surprised gasp. She immediately sunk into her seat and pulled at Lily's sleeve to cover herself.

Sirius laughed and laughed. He laughed at how embarrassed she was. He laughed at the fact that she had left him the gloves without telling him. He laughed in joy that the possibility of her reciprocating his feelings now seemed very high. Sirius was happiest in that moment and he was going to show her after the game. Maybe it was time to stop talking and just do something.

After finally going back in and changing into his quidditch robes, Sirius came out on to the field with rest of the team led by their captain James. They all got on their brooms and James shook hands with the Slytherin captain. Then, Sirius did something he had never done before a game. He looked to the crowd and zeroed in on one person. He then brought his left hand up, pressed two fingers to his lips and pushed out. It was his sign that he was coming for her.

After a long, sweaty game in the cold autumn breeze, Gryffindor finally won with a score of 280 vs Slytherin's score of 200. Sirius was excited that they had won but impatient to talk to Katherine.

Gryffindor had decided to celebrate their win with a huge party in the common room, complete with food James had gotten from the kitchens and a few bottles of firewhiskey and butterbeer they had snuck through the secret passage to Honeydukes cellar.

Sirius arrived at the party in full swing, people cheering for the team, talking, laughing, eating and drinking. One of the people he spotted drinking had violet eyes and was standing next to a worried-looking Lily.

"Katherine, stop. That's enough. You've already had a glass to drink, you don't have to drink more to prove you're upset." Said Lily, now worried sick.

"I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm just trying to forget." She shook her head, her hair falling across her face. She added as an afterthought, "Well, that is without actually forgetting anything."

Katherine grabbed another glass of firewhiskey, about to down it in one go as Lily protested vehemently.

When all of a sudden from behind her, Sirius came marching in through the portrait door. As she turned to face him, he grabbed the glass from her hand and placed it on the table with a strange gentleness. He then, grabbed her wrist violently and said, "We need to talk." At this point, Lily had slowly walked backwards out of their way towards her own boyfriend.

"Let go of me, Sirius. I don't want to talk right now." Katherine said quietly unable to look Sirius in the face and tell him to leave.

"I'm not going anywhere until we talk." He pulled her by the arm towards the side of the room where there was less of a crowd.

Katherine yanked her arm out of his grip and moved back away from him. "What is it that you want to talk about so badly?" That one glass of firewhiskey from before was now catching up to her. "How you tried to kiss me? Because I don't want to."

Sirius heard the shatter in her voice at the word kiss.

"I don't want to hear your excuses because I know you don't feel that way about me. You like me as only a friend and that's why you stopped, I get it." she looked away, tears forming in her eyes. "But I don't think I can just be friends with you, because I'm realizing now that I actually may like you. As much more than friends." she stood still a moment and then turned to leave but Sirius took two strides with his long legs, pulled her back to around and was immediately in front of her. Close enough to touch. He took one small step closer until his body was barely an inch from hers.

Before she could do or say anything he bent his head and placed his cold hands on her either side of her face. She shied away at his cold touch and the feeling of his hands on her but he held her in place. Then he whispered into her lips, "I don't want to be just friends either. I'm sorry I didn't do this sooner."

And he kissed her. And fireworks blew through her heart. He kissed her with all the feelings he'd been holding back. Everything he wanted to tell her, he said to her with that kiss. He kissed away her worries, her insecurities and he showed her that it wouldn't hurt to see him anymore.

He kissed her slowly and gently at first but soon he pushed for more and kissed her harder. His lips were warm but his hands that held her face were cold from the wind outside. It took Katherine a moment to realize that she was kissing him back with the same urgency of showing him how she felt.

One of his hands found its way through her long hair and the other to her waist. Katherine couldn't help her hands moving of their own will to the back of his neck pulling him closer to her.

When his lips finally left hers after either a minute or 10, he pulled Katherine into him for tight hug.

"Thank you." he said leaning his head into her hair.

"For what?" she spoke into his chest.

He pulled back from the embrace to look into her deep violet eyes. "For being you."

James and Lily watched the beautiful scene from a distance by the drinks.

"Finally!" they exclaimed together.

"Now I can stop worrying about Sirius' girl problems and worry about my girl." James leaned in for a quick peck on Lily's cheek.

He pulled her to his side and Lily said, "I'm glad they worked things out."

"Me too. But the whole house is gawking at them. Look."

And just as he said, when Lily looked around the room, every head was turned to watch Sirius and his new girl. But Lily knew that to Sirius this girl was much, much different. In a good way.

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**A/N: Please review!**


	15. Chapter 15

"I see you're still wearing my sweater around. You like it that much?" Sirius smirked as he watched Katherine trudge her way through the snow, stepping where he stepped approaching the blossom tree where he stood.

"Oh don't get cocky. But it's sadly starting to smell more like me than you now. You should wear it for a couple days and then give back to me."

"And why would I do that?" he raised a playful eyebrow.

"So that I can smell your scent at night. And... I might give you something if you do..." Her eyes avoided his.

"And what would that be?" He raised the other eyebrow but didn't get an answer as he watched her trip over her own feet and ran to catch her.

"You're fast." Katherine said with a laugh when he caught her.

He put an arm around her small shoulders covered by the huge white sweater that was a dress on her and led her to the tree. "You're going to fall into the cold snow if you keep tripping on your own feet." He laughed at her clumsiness.

"Hey! I did not trip on my own feet! I tripped on a tree root! I am not that clumsy!" she protested but her explanations were for nought because at that exact moment she tripped again bringing both her and the laughing Sirius down into the snow.

"I rest my case." Sirius said taking a handful of snow and throwing in on Katherine's head of black curls.

"Hey!" she attempted at grabbing snow to throw back at him but was stopped when Sirius flipped his body over hers and suspended his head over her face.

"I win." he said smugly into her lips.

"No I do." she smiled slamming a handful of snow into the side of his face.

She watched his face turn sour and as he shook head like a dog to get the snow off. He locked his knees around her waist, the snow soaking his trousers. His hands descended upon her face to pull it up to him as he kissed her senseless.

"That was early payment from you. I'll wear the sweater at night for the next few days, alright?" he looked over at her after changing position lying down next to her.

"Thank you." And she snuggled close to him in the cold snow. She wrapped her arms around his midsection and buried her face in chest.

He rested a hand on her long black curls and stroked them gently.

"I have something to give you." He murmured into her hair.

"Really? What?"

He sat up and she along with him. He looked into her deep violet eyes and then pulled out a black box from his pocket. "That night that I asked you to meet me at the tree – when the Runespoor attacked – I was planning to give you this."

He opened the box to her amazement and pulled out the chain and key pendant with it. He opened the clasp with his frozen fingers and put his arms around her neck. His breath warmed her neck as he closed the clasp in place and adjusted the key pendant right above her heart. The blue of the jewel on the key glinted in the moonlight.

"What's this scent? From the necklace. It's wonderful."

"_That_ is the scent of forget-me-not flowers. Just like how you like my scent, I want to be able to sense yours."

"But, what does the key open?"

"You'll find out later." He smiled one of his rare real-smiles.

Despite her curiosity Katherine said, "It's beautiful. Thank you."

He took her cheeks in his cold hands and bent her forehead to his lips. "Promise that you'll keep it safe?"

"I promise."

* * *

"They're driving me insane. They're worse than you two when you starting dating." Marlene said through clenched teeth to Lily and James as she stared daggers at the scene before her.

Sirius and Katherine had fallen asleep – after an obvious adventure late at night in the snow – on the couch by the fire in the common room. Sirius' arms were wrapped around Katherine. Half the house had already seen them and Marlene was on the verge of going crazy at being the only one single in their group of three friends. Sirius and Katherine were just too in love to go unnoticed and not be envious of.

"I vote we leave them there. Why ruin the moment? They'll get up eventually and it's the weekend anyway." James declared.

"I think the same. With all the drama they had to face trying to figure out each other's feelings they deserve some rest." nodded Lily.

"I vote we find me a boyfriend to snuggle with all night." Marlene complained marching away from the two adorable couples.

* * *

"Wake up sleepy head."

"Mm? Griblkjsdoieea? Wahh?"

"That's some nice gibberish you sprout in the morning." Sirius laughed softly.

"Huh?" Katherine opened her eyes groggily looking up at Sirius' smiling face.

"I should actually be saying evening, since we were up all night and ending up sleeping all through the day."

"Wait, we slept all day?" Katherine asked confused. "Wait...I slept here? With you? All night?" Katherine voice reached a new octave.

"All _day_." Sirius corrected. "Which is quite sad. We only _slept_ through our historic first night. I mean, _day._"

Katherine punched his chest and jumped off the couch in frustration.

Sirius was quick and put an arm around her waist and brought her down upon him. "But, if you're really upset about it, we can always make up for it." He said with a mischievous glint to his eyes but Katherine knew he was just kidding.

"Yeah, I guess we can." And she turned around in his arms until her back was to his chest and wrapped his arms around her and revelled in the warmth. "The fire isn't warm enough. I guess you'll have to be my fire today."

Sirius tightened his arms around her and whispered into her ear, "Then I guess we'll burn the world down today."

* * *

"What does it open already! Please tell me!" Katherine was dying of curiosity to know what beautiful key pendant opened.

"Fine, I'll give it to you. You're just too beautiful to refuse." Katherine blushed at his blatant compliment like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sirius rummaged around in his trunk but the foot of his bed while Katherine gazed around at the boys' dorm. She had rushed up the stairs to find out what the key opened. She noticed the little things by each person's bed that defined them in some way.

By James' bed were the Marauder's Map and a golden snitch resting under the pillow. Lupin's side table had a few potions, bandages and a calendar on it. Lastly, Sirius had the beater's gloves she had bought him on his bedside table and a photo of him and James in a frame.

Sirius finally found what he was looking for and hid it behind his back as he approached Katherine. "Close your eyes."

She did as he asked and waited as he placed something her knees. "Open."

She opened her eyes to find a hardcover blue journal with dark-grey silver tribal designs on the binding and clasped shut with a latch on the side. A latch that only opened with the key around her neck.

Katherine lifted the journal to the pendant, fit the key in the lock and turned it. She listened as the lock clicked open revealing pages upon pages to write in.

"I know I already bought you that other journal from the bookstore, but I just had to get you this one. It's special too. Coincidently, even though I bought it before you explained to me your memory abilities, it allows whatever is written inside to never be erased, never be lost, and never be forgotten. Hence, the forget-me-not scent to the necklace."

Katherine could not express her feelings through words so she just hugged him tightly instead.

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Or maybe, let's have this as:_

_Dear Sirius,_

_This will be my continuous letter, message, promise – whatever you want to call it – to you, all the things I want to tell you but I can't bring myself to say or all the things about us that I never want to forget. Even if I were to erase my own memory one day to forget all the bad things, I would never want to forget you._

_Sirius,_

_You are all I think of when I fall asleep. I never knew the world could be something as beautiful as this. With you in it, I feel alive. I am not merely living for the sake of living anymore. I started living for myself when I left home. And I started living for someone I care about when I met you._

_So, even if a prophecy tells me you'll be the end of me, I don't care. _

_I don't care because I'll have lived all this time with you. And that means much more to me than living but never having been _alive_._

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**_A/N: pretty pleaaaasssseeee review! I need the strength to keep scribbling on!_**


	16. Chapter 16

... "And you're all invited!" exclaimed James.

"What?" they all replied confused.

"I said, that you're all invited to my house for the Christmas break! My mom is cooking up a feast and she also really, wants to see you, Lily." James smiled in Lily's direction while she could only blush and freak out at the intention to meet her boyfriend's mother.

At this point Sirius chimed in with another proposition, "You guys will love Mrs. Potter's cooking, I've had it for Christmas for the past 6 years and it gets better every time. And I was thinking that after we spend a week at James' house for Christmas, we could all go to my house for the second week for New Year's! What do you guys think?"

Marlene almost spit out her pumpkin juice exclaiming, "You have a house?!"

"Well it's not really _my_ house. When my Uncle Alphard died in the summer he left me his house and a load of money, so I stopped mooching off the Potters and started living there. But, I've decided I want to clean it up and sell it, so that I can buy a flat in the city. My uncle's house is much too big for me to live in all alone." Sirius then turned to face everyone and continued, "That's why, it'd be great if you could all come over and help me out. And of course, it'll be great to just hang out as a group for a week."

"I think it's a great idea! I can't wait to taste Mrs. Potter's cooking and see your house, Sirius." Katherine was very excited to see Sirius' house and spend so much time with him now that mid-terms were over.

"Then it's settled. We'll take the train home and my parents will pick us up from the station on Friday, and after Christmas is over we'll go to Sirius' house." Lily declared.

"The girls will be getting the big guest room, Remus and Peter will share the smaller guest room and of course, James and Sirius will sleep in James' room." James' mother gave them all a warm welcome when they arrived in the house. She was a tall, thin, beautiful woman with long brown hair. She constantly wore an apron, cooking up a storm and she even had freshly baked cookies ready for them when they arrived.

"These cookies are heavenly!" Sirius mused as he bit into one, the chocolate melting in his mouth. He then stuffed the rest in his mouth and walked over to Mrs. Potter and gave her a hug. Mrs. Potter laughed as Sirius said in a tone of comical tragedy, "I really do love you, Mrs. Potter, you know that? I will continue to say this; you should've married me instead of your husband. You could've baked me cookies all day."

"Ah but then you, my son, wouldn't have found this lovely young lady over here, Katherine right?" Mrs. Potter smiled brightly at Katherine and she couldn't help but laugh. "And of course, I can't forget that James wouldn't have been born and then he wouldn't have met Lily. You know, he's only talked about you in his letters to me. How much he wanted me to meet you and what a wonderful lady you are." Lily and James both blushed to the shade of Lily's hair.

"Details, details. You could always just marry me now, Mrs. Potter. I'm sure everyone would understand." Mrs. Potter only laughed stuffing Sirius' mouth with another cookie.

After unpacking their things in their rooms the girls headed back out to the family room where a towering Christmas tree stood, decorated in lavishly in red and gold ornaments and ribbon. At the top a miniature angel sang Christmas carols softly in the background.

Katherine found Sirius putting presents under the tree, adding to the mound of boxes covered in Christmas-y wrapping paper.

"Hey, does there happen to be a present for me under there?"

"Nah, why would I get you a present? It's a gift enough to be able to date me." Sirius joked.

Katherine took on an incredulous tone. "First, you propose to another girl and now you don't have a present for me? How could you?"

"If you bake me cookies like those, I'd marry you in an instant." Sirius smiled and Katherine's heart fluttered at the small words, _marry you_.

"You're really close with James' family aren't you?"

"Yeah, of course. They took me in, when I didn't have a family that cared. They let me stay here for a whole year, before I got my inheritance from my uncle. Mr and Mrs. Potter have never been anything less than family to me and they have never treated me less than their own son." Sirius tossed a gold ornament between his hands seemingly distracted, but his eyes never left the moving figures of Mr and Mrs. Potter in the kitchen.

Katherine thought of her Grandmother, the only family she had ever known since she erased her memories. Her Grandmother had always tried her best to be all the family Katherine needed and Katherine never thought she needed anything more. But watching the bond between Sirius and his best friend's family, for the first time, she wished she could bring back the memories of her parents. Just so that she could at least feel the love they had for her, so that she could feel her love for them, though they were gone.

"Why are you crying?" Sirius whispered gently, taking her face in his hands and softly wiping away the single tear that trailed down her face with his thumb.

"I'm not crying. I'm just missing people that I don't even remember, and it sucks. I thought that not having memories of them would make me never miss them but, not having anything to remember, for the first time, it feels painful." Katherine couldn't stop more tears falling and Sirius understood who she was talking about.

"Come on, let's go outside, I want to try something." Sirius declared, pulling her up from where they sat on the couch. He led her to the closet and dressed her in her coat, scarf, hat and gloves. He then pushed her out the door, into dark night and called over his shoulder, "We're going for a walk, we'll be back before dinner!"

"Sirius, where are we going? It's cold, can't we just go back inside?" Sirius merely, took her hand in his and stuffed them both in his pocket and quickened his pace to his destination.

"Sirius, why are we at a playground? In the middle of December? On this super cold night?" Katherine hopped in her spot to stay warm at she stared at the red and blue swings.

"I want you to try and remember." Sirius gave her a serious stare.

"Remember what?" Katherine asked even though she knew the answer.

"I want you to try to remember your parents. Any memory you can of them. And you can start with these swings. Try to remember. Try to bring back those memories you locked away in your mind. If you can erase it, then I believe you can bring it back."

"Sirius, I'm going back to the house. You know how hard it is for me to even think about it. I can't do this." Katherine's voice trembled. She turned to leave, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall.

Sirius grabbed her arm and spun her back to face him. He was standing close to her and she could feel the warmth of his breath. "Don't you dare give up before you even try. You can't run away from your memories forever, Katherine. I know very well how much this hurts you, but I would rather you be able to remember their love and care despite the pain, rather than live on hurting about something you can't remember."

"I can't, Sirius. I just can't." She turned to leave again and this time he didn't grab her. But as she walked away from him he called from behind her, words that made her stop.

She could hear the rage in his voice. "At least, you have parents that cared for you. All I have ever known is a family full of pride and hate for others, even _me_, their own son, when I tarnished their honour. If I was you, I would be jumping at the chance to relish in the memories of people who once loved and cared for me." Katherine didn't know what to do, but she couldn't leave him standing there no matter how much it hurt her to remember.

She walked back towards Sirius and attempted to say something, "I just..."

"Don't let them be gone with no one to remember them. Don't torture yourself anymore with your ghosts and accept that they are what make you, _you_. Because, I love _you_. And I want you to be able to remember a family on Christmas. That's my Christmas wish and I hope that you'll grant it." Sirius dropped his hands in his coat pockets and sat down on the swings.

"Swings? Why swings?" Katherine sat in the seat beside him.

Sirius smiled, "I just have a feeling that you might have a childhood memory, of your parents pushing you on the swings. Call it a gut feeling or a sixth sense. Either way, give it a try. Imagine, a warm sunny day, try to bring back a memory."

The last thing, Katherine could imagine while she was freezing cold was a sunny day. She looked up at the dark, and gloomy clouds and she didn't feel any sunnier. Sirius noticed this, and got up from his swing and pushed hers from behind. Katherine was surprised by the motion but eventually swung her legs as he pushed her.

She closed her eyes tightly, imagining a warm, sunny day but came up blank again.

"It's just not working, Sirius." She sighed after a long while.

"Maybe we should try something else then." He took her hand in his and said, "Instead of thinking of the situation, try thinking of your parents _in_ the situation. Instead thinking of how warm it would've been or the motion of the swing, try thinking of your smiling dad pushing you on the swing and of your mother in front of you."

Katherine took a deep breath, plunging deeper and deeper into the recesses of her mind, trying to dig up the memory. She thought of her father's smiling face in the pictures her grandmother had shown her and of her mother's beautiful laugh from the moving portrait that hung at the top of the stairs.

Suddenly, she saw flashes. She heard her mother's chiming laugh from the picnic bench. She felt the wind that blew in her dark hair, obscuring her view while she turned to yell to her father, "Higher! Higher!" Her legs swinging back and forth. The smell of sandwiches travelling through the air from the picnic basket. Her father coming around to the front of the swing when she had exclaimed, "Catch me! Catch me! I'm going to jump off, daddy!" And finally she felt the warm of her father's embrace when he caught saying, "I've got you, darling. I've got you, right here."

Katherine gasped, her eyes flying open. Her head felt like it was going to explode and the only thing that stopped her from falling to the ground was Sirius' supporting arms. He held her tightly as she cried and cried, and as she let back each memory, one by one, back into her heart. He stroked her hair and told her over and over, "I'm here for you. I'm here." while five years of memories lost, found her again just as fast as when she had erased them. And at the end of it all, she was left with the scent of burning s'mores and a flash of green imprinted on her eyes as she fell into unconsciousness.

She woke up in a warm bed and to the smell of hot chocolate on the bedside table and to Sirius' face with worry written all over it.

"I pushed you too hard. I shouldn't have made you do that. You were crying so hard and then you fainted and I didn't know what to do." His words were rushed like he was afraid he would lose her again.

"No. No. I'm fine." Katherine then sat up and gave him a tight hug. Clinging on to his warm scent. "Thank you. Thank you for wishing for something so beautiful."

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PLEASEEE REVIEW! I need your strength and constructive criticism! Pleeeeasse!


	17. Chapter 17

The Potters' house was in a quiet wizarding neighbourhood. The houses lining both sides of the street were lit up like sun with numerous Christmas lights hanging on every edge and corner and side of the houses. The decorations were extra special with fake life size reindeer and giant Santas as well as trees covered in lights and ornaments. But what made it all so magical, were the floating lights that danced in air and the enchanted ornaments that sang soft Christmas tunes.

Inside the houses was no different. The Potters' house was decorated in every corner with every Christmas decoration you could imagine; from giant holly wreaths on the doors with jingle bells hanging from their middles, to candles, candy canes, garlands and angels, and from stockings hanging over the fireplace to the magical snow that fell from no starting place on the ceiling, to tops of everyone's heads without so much as a shiver. Of course, the Christmas decorations did not leave out the wonderful Christmas tree or the mistletoe magically hanging in the air ready to catch its next victims.

On Christmas day, the Potter house was filled with much mistletoe and mischief. Sirius and James were both working hard on a top secret surprise for the night time. They spent a good part of the afternoon preparing their surprise and all anyone could discern from the flashing lights under the closed door of James' room was that it was going to spectacular.

Katherine spent the day chatting with Lily and Marlene while they all helped Mrs. Potter in the kitchen. Lily was feeling neglected on Christmas by James but Katherine knew there was no way to rip Sirius and James apart when they had a scheme started. Instead, she decided to revel in the scent of the soufflé in the oven and the smell of burning firewood coming from the fireplace.

After being locked up in James' room until late in the evening, the boys finally emerged declaring, "It's done." They marched everyone outside to the large backyard covered in layers of snow. The fence that bordered it was snow topped and loomed over them. The night was dark and silent except for the faint sound of carols coming from the magicked decorations.

The boys brought out a large black box the size of a mini-fridge and placed it in the middle of the yard, while everyone stood bundled in their coats and scarves against the walls of the house, careful not to fall in the deep snow.

"Ladies and Gentleman," James started with dramatic elegance, "today you will be seeing a sight far more amazing than anything you have ever experienced before. Please, look up at the star filled sky and await the magnificent show."

With a flourish James and Sirius grabbed the lid of the box together and threw it off. At first, nothing at all came out but when everyone was ready to look away, out of the box escaped a flaming phoenix that flew straight up into the still sky leaving a trail of stardust behind it. When it reached a good height where the whole neighbourhood could see, it burst into a thousand shimmering stars that in turn descended upon the houses in glittering luminescence. Next, from the box escaped a single ray of sunshine so bright that they had to look away. It shot into the sky spiralling as it went, transforming into a great big flaming red dragon that flew through the sky blowing flames that did not burn upon their heads. Finally, breaking away from the box was beautiful singing angel with wings of gossamer that floating gently into the sky, its voice echoing in to the moon. When it gained a great height, from beneath it appeared an evergreen tree the size of the house, upon which the angel settled on the top like the angel on their tree in the house. Out of the box sprang hundreds of decorations and ornaments for the tree that danced around it as the angel sang, circling up and down in a trail of golden light. Lastly, the angel raised her arms wide and from each hand she let out a burst of sparkling light that formed a throng of reindeer pulling a sleek sleigh with a big fat Santa Claus ho-ho-ing away. And at the end of it all, the scene shattered into a million pieces never to be seen again.

Sirius and James took their bows as everyone clapped and gazed in awe at their creation of magical fireworks.

The group headed in while Mrs. Potter set the table full of food for their dinner feast. Sirius took this moment to grab Katherine by the wrist and pull her away from everyone else.

Katherine almost smacked right into his chest while he only laughed and said, "Look up."

She did just that but before she could see what was above their heads he stole a kiss from her soft lips and ran away, calling over his shoulder, "Mistletoe! Wonderful, isn't it?"

Katherine was left with a pounding heart at such a short kiss and she wondered to herself, _is it okay to feel this strongly about someone? To love someone this much? Even if it might kill me?_

Christmas ended and so did their time at the Potters'. They arrived at Sirius' house a day before New Year's Eve. Now, when Sirius said that his uncle's house was big, it was definitely an understatement.

The house was tucked into the edge a forest of tall snow covered trees. It overlooked a small shimmering lake that when frozen over, could be skated on. It was secluded and the little nearby town could only be reached by one road than ran at the back of the house.

The house itself was like an old Victorian gothic mansion, tall and looming. Dark and creaking. There were several balconies on the second and third floors, an aging wood deck that lead to the heavy mahogany front doors that hosted an iron knocker – the shape of a snake – at their crown.

They entered the house cautiously afraid of bats suddenly appeared or of chandeliers falling upon their heads. Sirius led them each to their own rooms as there was enough space to fit a small army.

Each room was relatively the same – with wallpaper peeling at the corners, beds that took up a third of the room in size because of their huge wooden frames; elaborately designed with snakes as a theme, covered in green and silver bed sheets, heavy double door dressers enough to fit a whole store of clothes and finally big comfy armchairs that sat by round tables for reading by the lamplight.

Such were the rooms of James, Lily, Marlene, Peter and Remus. But, for Sirius he had taken his uncle's old room, the room of the head of the house. His room was unlike the others as it resided on the third floor and possessed French doors that led to a balcony that overlooked the lake. He had rid his room of anything that represented Slytherin in the slightest and had already filled it with Gryffindor keepsakes and bed sheets of red and gold.

It was to the room to the left of his that Sirius led Katherine to. Her room was just like his with a balcony overlooking the lake and rather than green and silver bed sheets, hers were rich purple and gold. She loved the way the light streamed in from the windows giving a soft glow to the room.

"Do you like it? I picked this room specifically for you. And of course, it's next to mine." He laughed charmingly and moved toward her with the same casual elegance from when she first met him.

"I love it. But don't even think you'll be getting in here at night." She wagged her finger in his face but he only stopped her next words at the edge of her lips by kissing her passionately and unexpectedly. Katherine mind burst with lights at the way he kissed her like she and he were the only two people left in the world. She pulled him closer and closer, until there was no space between them, until their hearts beat violently against each other. His hands tugged at her waist and hers at his shoulders as he deepened their kiss more, a sense of hunger and desperation, no longer light and gentle but strong and ardent.

Amidst the feeling of their burning kiss, Katherine could only think of how cruel it would be lose this all, if she died.

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**A/N: Pleasseee review! **


	18. Chapter 18

Katherine had only skated a few times when she was a little girl. Her mother and father had taken her skating at the large frozen pond in the park by their house. She remembered their tight hold, leading her across the ice in circles. She remembered the grace at which her mother glided, twirling Katherine around her and executing perfect tricks. Katherine had barely any of her mother's skill but all of her heart for the sport, so she was eager to get on the ice when Sirius had declared it thick enough to skate on.

Sirius had found a stash of skates in one of the storage rooms and everyone strapped them on. Katherine was left attempting to put on her skates properly but failing in the end. Her father had always tied them for her when she was little and now she could barely get them on tightly.

"Sirius! Can you help me over here?" she called to Sirius' tall figure against the moonlight from where she sat on the snow.

Sirius smiled as he put one of her feet between his legs, holding it in place and pulled the laces tight, lacing them through the holes up to the top of her ankle. Katherine somehow, did not find it romantic but felt like a kid again, her father tying her skates for her.

She suddenly remembered their passionate kiss from the night before. One that almost got out of hand in the heat of the moment. Her cheeks burned red at the thought but she turned her head when Sirius looked at her.

"Okay, all done. Come on." He put out a hand to pull her up. She took it gratefully, not knowing how she was going to make it from the snow to the ice a little ways away. Sirius led her to the ice while the rest of their friends were already on the ice laughing and zipping across it.

Once on the ice, Katherine skated with uncertain feet but Sirius took her cold hands in his. He skated backwards, facing her, pulling her along with him. Katherine could focus only on the silver buttons on his coat, trying not to look down at the glass-like ice.

"There you're getting the hang of it. I'm going to let go now." Sirius laughed at the frightened look she gave him and added, "Don't worry. I'm right here if you need me."

In the distance, Katherine saw James and Lily racing across the ice from one end to the next, and Marlene pulling Remus around in circles around the lake, lastly, Peter lurking on the snow by himself. She decided that if the others could do it, so could she. She let go of Sirius' hands and slid forward cautiously. Suddenly, days of skating from her childhood came back to her, like muscle memory and her body guided her where her mind could not.

As the night grew darker they all skated endlessly, stopping to talk at some points or skating alone, enjoying each other's company and admiring the moon's reflection on the ice. Katherine was skating hand in hand with Sirius talking lightly about school when he felt the need to tease her by threatening to push her down and make her fall.

"Stop it!" Katherine screamed while he tickled her, and she nearly fell to the ground. He caught her only to push her lightly again.

"Then give me something and I'll stop." He brought his face close to hers. Katherine withered under his intense gaze.

"Wh-what do you want?" she stuttered, reminded again of their kiss the night before. Her face grew hot and his proximity wasn't helping.

Sirius leaned in until he was but an inch from her lips. "I think you know what I want." This time he didn't stop leaning in until he was kissing her again. The same fervor of the night before continued in this kiss and it took all of Katherine's self-control to break away.

"You can't get what you want that easily!" She called skating as fast as she could away from him. Sirius watched from where she left him while she skated to the other side of the small lake.

Katherine relished in the momentum she had gained and when she reached the center of the lake she span endlessly on the spot, trying her hand at the tricks she had seen her mother perform.

Sirius watched Katherine, laughing and spinning in delight in the middle of the lake. She was like a beacon of light, her laugh like bells and the glint of her key necklace in moonlight reached him on the other side of the lake. The moment was so beautiful that Sirius did not expect it when the ice beneath Katherine suddenly let out a quiet crack.

Sirius watched in horror as the crack travelled like veins of blood around Katherine's feet. Katherine span on, unaware of the danger and before Sirius could so much as move or scream to her to run, the ice shattered beneath her feet, her head hitting the a block of ice and she plunged into the ice cold abyss.

Sirius could hear Lily's scream when she finally saw what happened but he could only think of getting to Katherine. He reached the center of the lake, ripping of his skates and coat, hat and gloves, scarves and shirt, anything that could weigh him down. The wind bit at his exposed skin but he did not care, plunging into the water after Katherine.

He could see almost nothing in the darkness of the water and he turned in a full circle before spotting the shine of the key pendant of Katherine's necklace beneath him, floating by her unconscious face, a trail of blood running off her brow. He swam deeper and deeper, stretching out a hand to her, his fingers inches from her arm. But, Katherine was only swept away from him again and again, until he could barely breathe. His lungs exploded from the pressure and his heart ripped open with the undeniable frustration of not being able to reach her. Of losing her.

It was not until he caught the tip of her coat sleeve that her pulled her to himself, holding on to her, he swam to the surface as fast as he could, short on air and weighed down by her clothes.

When he finally broke the surface of the water, he gasped for air, losing consciousness as arms reached him and Katherine pulling them to safety.

Katherine awoke to her purple and gold sheets surrounding her and to Sirius' wrapped in a blanket dozing off in a chair placed next to her bed, his hair hanging in locks from the water. She sat up without waking him, watching his body shiver from the cold. She took an extra blanket on her bed and placed it over his shoulders, careful not to wake him.

She thought of the moment before she lost consciousness. She remembered hitting her head and reached up to feel bandages on her forehead. She then thought of the moment before that when she spun in circles keeping her eyes on one point so she wouldn't get dizzy. That one point being Sirius. She had been focusing so much on him, on how much she loved him that it consumed her thoughts and made her blind to the danger that was befalling her.

Katherine reached under to find her blue diary under her pillow where she had left it. She opened the lock carefully with her stiff fingers, using the key pendant around her neck. She found comfort in the familiar click of the lock and opened the diary to a fresh page.

_Dear Sirius,_

_You saved me today. I almost died, but you saved me even though your life could've been in danger while trying. I'm saying this even though you already know this because, I need to remember that. I need to remember, in the moment that I die, in the moment that my prophecy comes true, that you had always put yourself before me. That you always loved me more than I deserved. _

_Of course, I don't know if I'll actually die. I don't know if that prophecy is a load of Hippogriff dung. And I want to believe that it's not true. I want to believe that something as beautiful as what I feel for you could not be the cause of something as terrible as death. But, I need to be prepared for the worst, so here is my hope, that I will have the strength to put you before myself, as you have always done. That I will have the strength to believe in my love, even at the end._

"Hey, Sirius, wake up." Katherine whispered softly in Sirius' ear and he roused, his eyes still drooping.

"Hey, sweetheart. Are you feeling better? I couldn't get you to stop shivering before."

"You're one to talk. You were shivering on the chair when I woke up."

"Alright, alright. But you should get some rest. You hit your head hard. I'm going to go sleep in my room now, okay?" he said gently as he got up from the chair placing the blankets back in the dresser. He came back to the bed where she sat; he kissed her on the forehead before walking away.

Katherine grabbed his wrist and she whispered something Sirius didn't catch.

"What is it? What did you say?" he leaned down to her.

"I said...don't go. Don't leave me here alone. Can you stay with me tonight?" Sirius watched her pleading eyes. Something was different. Katherine had never looked at him with her violet eyes so heartbreaking. Something was bothering her but he didn't know what.

Her words only stirred the memory in the water, of stretching so far to grab her, but never reaching her. The feeling of almost losing her haunted him like a vivid nightmare, while he looked at her thin body on the bed before him.

He climbed in next to her, over the sheets and held her tightly. He rested her head on his chest and his hand stroked her hair. "I'm here. I'm right here. I'm not leaving."

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**A/N: Pleasse review! I'm trying my best to wrap this story up soon but I need your reviews to help me keep writing! :)**


	19. Chapter 19

New Year's Eve. The last day of the year. The day when everyone is thinking of their best memories from that year and what memories they'd like make in the New Year.

It was on that day, that Katherine walked down the snow dusted street, by the little shops and cafes, the bakeries and the homes of the muggles, in the little town at the end of the road that stretched behind Sirius' house. She walked hand in hand with Sirius who had wanted to take her to dinner that night.

"There's something I really want to show you tonight." Sirius played with Katherine's small fingers entwined with his. It had become a habit over the past couple weeks.

"Alright. But what is it?" Katherine tugged at his sleeve turning his attention back to her and not her fingers.

He smiled and said, "It's a surprise, so you'll have to wait." He put an arm around her shoulders, "But in the meantime, tell me a story. A memory. Something that you remember now."

Katherine hesitated but launched into a story. "When I was five years old, my mother told me that my eyes had started turning purple after I turned a year old. They were originally brown like hers."

"They were brown?" Sirius put his hands on her cheeks and comically looked deep in her violet eyes. "Nah. I can't see it."

Katherine laughed swiping his hands off continuing, "My mother told that it was because I was special. That's why they turned that colour. But I knew she was lying. I knew there was a reason that she wasn't telling me but I was only five so I didn't press it." Katherine took a deep breath. "I've told you how my father was a follower of Voldemort right? And that he left because he loved my muggleborn mother?"

Sirius nodded and placed a kiss on her head showing her that he knew and understood. Katherine continued with this encouragement, "Well, on my 13th birthday I finally asked my Grandmama, why in the world did my eyes turn purple." Katherine stumbled as they walked over the bumpy snow covered grass. "My Grandmama has always been to the point. She has never told me a lie, never sugar coated the truth, never beat around the bush. That time was no different. She told me it was because of a curse. It was a curse that had been aimed at my father. He had avoided it but it ended up accidentally hitting me instead. The curse rebounded off me to the Death Eater it came from but, the effects of it rebounding left me with these violet eyes. Not because I was special. Not because of something beautiful, like you say. But because of a curse aimed at my father. These are the cursed eyes given to me."

Katherine was silent for a long time, waiting for Sirius to say something. But, he only hugged her closer and whispered, "They are not cursed to me. They will always be beautiful to me." He bent down to look her straight in the eyes. "Because they are _your_ eyes. Anything that is a part of you, will always be beautiful to me." Katherine closed her eyes at his words and he kissed her lightly on each eyelid. Her cold face burned where his lips touched her.

"Katherine, I got to go to the bakery to buy some bread for the kids. Do you want to come with me or do you want to wait out here?" Sirius asked his fingers lingering on hers.

"I'll stay out here. Thanks." Sirius hurried to the bakery leaving Katherine behind in front of the shop standing by the tall lamppost by the road.

"Hello, can I have two loaves of bread." Sirius told the baker as he looked around the quaint bakery filled with displays of cakes and breads and pastries you could only imagine of having.

He looked back at the street below, watching Katherine standing by the lamppost when the most peculiar thing happened. A small muggle boy came up to her and said something. He then pulled her by the hand on to the edge of the wide road. At this moment, Sirius exited the shop watching as the boy ran across the street without warning and Katherine rushed after him. But all Sirius could see was the muggle car speeding toward her figure in the middle of the road. He ran faster than ever before, caught her by the sleeve and pulled her back just as the car sped by the spot where she had just been standing.

Katherine was confused when she found herself on top a furious looking Sirius. "What. Did. You. Think. You. Were. Doing?" He shook her to emphasize his point. "You could've been run over! Why in the world would you chase that boy across the street when there was a car coming? You could have died!" Katherine had never seen Sirius so hysterical. Sirius had never felt more worried.

"I'm sorry, Sirius. I just, I don't know. I wasn't thinking and just chased after the boy. He told me the strangest thing."

"And what did he tell you?" Sirius couldn't believe anything the boy said was surprising enough to run across a road without looking.

Katherine face took on a grave look. "He said," she paused not sure whether to continue, "that I'm going to die."

Things were going from good to bad real fast. Katherine knew that the prophecy would most likely come true, but the events of the past two days were catching up to her fast. First, she almost drowned in a frozen lake, next she was told she was going to die and then right afterwards; she almost got run over by a car. She was getting much closer to death than she had expected.

"Don't worry about it. He was probably just playing a prank or something. Come on, you said you would take me to the surprise." Katherine pulled Sirius up and forced him to stop thinking about dark things.

"Here we are." Sirius said with a flourish of his arm towards the small town circle.

In the center of the circle was a huge fountain with angels in the middle, water spouted from their hands frozen in midair. On the circular edge of the fountain the townspeople had laid small candles of different shapes, sizes and colours, all lit up with fire making the frozen ice glow. Around the town circle, in the air were more candles suspended by wires tied periodically on the posts that stood in each corner of the circle. It was illuminated by only candle light and almost the whole town had gathered for some sort of event. Katherine could see families and couples buying lanterns from an elderly lady who had set up a stall at the edge of the circle.

"This town has a tradition at the end of each year. Starting from Christmas day the families from each household bring a candle to put on the edge of the frozen fountain or hang in the air around the circle. And then on New Year's Eve, today, they all gather together to light lanterns and make wishes upon them. It is said that the angels of the fountain really exist in the sky and that when the lanterns reach them, your wish will be granted. But, you have to make sure you let go of your lantern at exactly midnight or your wish won't come true."

The two bought their lanterns from the elderly woman at the stall who smiled brightly and wished them a Happy New Year's Eve. They lighted their lanterns and Sirius rounded on Katherine immediately, "What are you going to wish for?"

"Not telling. If I tell you it won't come true, don't you know?" she teased. "What did you wish for?"

"You didn't tell me yours! Why would I tell you mine?" Sirius complained marching off to find a spot near the fountain to stand by.

With only a few minutes left until midnight, Sirius asked Katherine, "What's your most cherished memory of this year?"

Katherine could not respond. She had never thought of a singular memory being her favourite. But, then she remembered the late nights by the blossom tree with Sirius and replied, "You. You are my most cherished memory."

The villagers started counting down to midnight. _10 seconds._ Sirius stared at Katherine eyes wide open at her response. _7 seconds._ Katherine looked down to avoid his gaze, waiting to release her lantern into the sky. _5 seconds._ Sirius put a hand to Katherine's waist and pulled her towards him. _3 seconds. _He leaned forward as Katherine was taken by surprise. _1 second._ His lips met hers. _0 seconds. _They both let go of their lanterns unable to concentrate on anything but their kiss.

_Dear Sirius,_

_You're curious as to what my wish is, right? Well I couldn't tell you in that moment because then it wouldn't come true._

_ But I'll tell you now: my wish is to be able to love you as long as I can. To be with you until my last moments. _

_My wish is to have the strength to selfishly hold on to you, even though I know the _truth_. That when I'm gone, the pain of losing me, will be unbearable for you. Because I know better than anyone just how much I love you and that you love me that much _more_._

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**A/N: It's nearing the end of the story everyone! I'm thinking about 5-ish more chapters to give it a proper ending? PLEASE REVIEW! I need your reviews to take this all the way to the finish!**


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